Curiosities
by ChickyGirl
Summary: Hermione's first introduction into the magical world is by two very different men, one light, and one dark, but the one she is enamored with is the one everyone fears.
1. Prologue

**Curiosities**

 **Harry Potter AU**

 **Hermione/ Severus**

 **Rating: M**

 **Status: In- Progress**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor any of these recognizable characters or themes.**

 **Summary: Hermione's first introduction into the magical world is by two very different men, one light, and one dark, but the one she is enamored with is the one everyone fears.**

 **A/N: I do not have a Beta so all mistakes are mine alone.**

 ** _Part 1: Chapter 1_**

 _"Every child is born a naturalist. Their eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of flowers, and the mysteries of life."_

"Hermione! Can you come down here please, love?" she heard her mother call to her from downstairs.

"Coming Mom!" the little girl called from where she lay with her head hanging over the end of her bed, her long caramel curls just about touching the floor as she held her book above her face. Sweeping downstairs, her lacey white dress twisted around her ankles almost tripping her in her energetic flurry into the Granger dining room.

Albus Dumbledore in his usual half moon spectacles, and Severus Snape in his black frock both sat in the bright living room of the two muggles who stood whispering in their kitchen.

"She's always been different Mark, ever since she was a baby," Mrs. Granger took the pot off the stove as it started to whistle, "Remember when she made a flower bloom in her hand when she was three? It was dead Mark, and she brought it back to red."

"Yes, I remember Sheila," Mr. Granger put the pot onto a tray, taking cups and saucers from the cupboard. "Our little girl is very special."

"Try to be nice Severus," Dumbledore said to the Head of Slytherin House, hearing little feet pattering down the stairs, "Introducing a new student into our world is a wonderful thing, try not to look as if you despise them on sight".

Severus sneered at the old headmaster as he got up from his position to join his now standing master, though he did smooth his features into his usual mask. He turned to the stairs just as his new bright eyed student came into view.

Hermione wasn't expecting two grown men to be at the end of the stairs when she set foot on the last step, especially one who wore such a bright purple with a beard and hair as long as hers, or a very tall intimidating man who looked as if he was doing his best to imitate stone.

"Hello, Hermione," the older man greeted her with a smile and a clasp of his hands as her parents came bustling in, her dad put a hand on her shoulder to lead her more into the room. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and this is Severus Snape, our Potions Master."

Hermione had sat down next to Severus while her parents talked to the Headmaster, not paying attention to the glance they gave her, and listened what they said, but it wasn't anything she didn't already know. She had always known she was different, and she had a feeling the man she sat beside was different too, but not viewed in a good way by other people as her being witch would be. They made quite a picture, her with her bare little feet dangling off the edge of the sofa, holding a porcelain cup with dainty fingers looking up to the imposing profile of the man to her right who held his own cup but never once took a sip.

Taking a sip of her own she continued to look up to him as he stared hard at the crackling fireplace over her head, his eyes snapping down when he felt cold fingers gently prying his long ones from his untouched tea only to replace it with the one she had already taken a drink of. Cocking his eyebrow at her hidden smile, his obsidian eyes hold her hazel ones as he drinks the already tasted tea, accepting that it was not tampered with, the rim hiding the slight quirk of his lips.

Dumbledore is the only one who sees the exchange, and hides his bafflement well as he had never seen the boy he has know for over twenty years take food from anyone other than the House Elves.

After taking out quite a few books from a pocket that should not have held them, Dumbledore purposely stridded out of the quaint muggle home before the Potions Master after bidding farewell the the elder Grangers'.

Hermione hadn't planned on doing anything of the sort, but the short time she spent in his presence demanded that she at least try to take some of the hardness out of his mouth. As soon as her parents had left her to see the professors' out, she flung her pale arms around his lean waist, her eyes resting right beside his snake engraved frock buttons.

Severus was momentarily stunned, his arms akimbo as if not knowing where to put them.

"Ms. Granger," Hermione heard him say for the first time, his deep baritone startling her as she had never heard a voice that deep, but she didn't let go, only angling her head up and smiling brightly. "What are you doing?"

"Mummy always says if someone's not smiling they could use a hug," she gave him a light squeeze as if to accentuate her meaning. "And if they still won't smile to not let go until they do or hug you back."

Severus stared at the very strange girl whose head barely reached up to his hip and thought she might be the strangest witch he had ever met, and that was saying something with how many witches he had encountered in his life.

"You're really not going to let go?"

"Nope. Mummy's always right."

"Will a book get you to, silly girl?"

Her eyes lit up as if she had gotten a puppy, the same as they had when Dumbledore had given her his stack of magical books with moving pictures. She let the dark man go to bounce slightly on the balls of her bare feet as he pulled out a thin book from a hidden pocket beside his buttons.

"Here, girl. I would have it back once term starts."

She flung her arms around her new professor once again, not seeing the small smile he did indeed have now as he swept down the porch stairs in a flurry of black cloth, leaving her to devour his book laying on the floor where they had stood.

 **A/N: Once again, I do not have a Beta, and thank you for sticking through the whole story if you see any mistakes; if I don't catch them it's because I have a thing for writing things at two in the morning when it won't let me sleep.**

 **I love you all! Thanks for reading! Like, follow, and review please! And read my other stories :)**

 **P.S.- If enough people like this story either review or PM me if you want it a longer story or just a drabble.**


	2. 1st Year Part One

_**Chapter 2**_

 **A/N: Thank you everyone so much for the lovely reviews! They were so sweet!**

 **Just a point to cover though. Like a lot of my stories, I don't have an outline before I publish it so it can be a one- shot or a full story, so… I have no idea where this is going. *Blushes***

 **Someone asked/ stated(?) that this seems like a mentor Hermione/ Severus story; so far it is, but I can never help myself when it comes to them without throwing in a little fluff in there- so just a heads up it might be 'that' kind of story.**

 **I love you all! Happy readings! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I own no recognizable themes or characters.**

 _"A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, pointer to the truth that each student must find for themself."_

"You have everything, darling? Books, clothes, your jumpers?" Hermione's mom was fussing about her daughter, not wanting to let her go as she grabbed her up in a squeeze. "You have the quilt Grandma made you right? It's going to be cold up there."

Hermione laughed as there was a knock on the door, dancing out of her mother's reach she opened the red door to the imposing figure of Severus Snape in a black Muggle suit.

"Hi!" she clasped her hands around him, and after two months of working with him, she finally got him to respond by staying wrapped around him until he reciprocated.

Since he and Dumbledore had came to her house, Hermione had devoured the books the Headmaster had given her, and others Severus had given her, leaving her with a passion almost as big for Potions as she had for learning new things. She had just about bought every book in Flourish and Blotts when they had went to pick up her wand if he had not told her Hogwarts had about everyone of them and more in it's library. The man called Severus Snape was an enigma that Hermione could read so easily, and isn't that such a paradox? From the first time she had switched their cups, to when he readily took anything she had made for him, his face had been stone to anyone else, but not her. Ever since she was small, she could feel a person's intentions, rather they be good, or bad. The man in front of her was good, but he had many things he hid from the people around him, and Hermione was determined to help his poor tortured soul through it all.

"You ready, girl?" he asked, pulling her from feeling him with her innate magical specialty with his hands on her shoulders.

"Ready," she smiled up at him, going to her dad for a hug only to have him pick her up squealing into his big arms, her feet swinging a good few feet in the air. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, baby." His voice sounded suspiciously think in her ear as her mother came up to hug her from behind.

Hermione turned back to Severus once her parents put her back on her feet, and grabbed ahold of his pale hand that engulfed hers entirely, feeling it tighten slightly and then it felt as if she were going through a very narrow tube.

"You know we can not be like this at the school, yes?" he asked the girl who refused to let go of his hand as they walked through the muggle part of the train station. Drawing more than a few glances, the big scary man and the little girl wadded their way through the throngs of people.

"I know," she replied, feeling a sense of loss as she looked up to his tall figure before latching herself back around his waist, burying her face into the engraved buttons she couldn't seem to pull away from. Tears were prickling at her eyes. "I won't get into Slytherin." She could smell his potions ingredients that seemed to be a part of his very skin.

"I know," he agreed, knowing the Sorting Hat wouldn't put a muggleborn girl into a nest full of vipers. "But you still have all the qualities, nurture them. They may help you later in life."

With those words, Hermione let go of the man she had become attached to and saw his mask over take his face as he waved her in front of him into the tunnel and disapparated away from her view once again.

When Hermione finally gets into the train and settles into the window seat in an empty compartment, she pulls out a book from her cloak. So engrossed as she was in it and her thoughts, she never heard the compartment door open to reveal a platinum blond boy enter and sit on the opposite seat. Finally finishing her novel, she looks up to the boy who had been staring at her the whole time.

She blinked, "Hello."

He blinked back, "Are you a Mudblood?"

"That's not a very nice word," she replied, recognizing the word from when Severus told her of the Pureblood supremacists and the war. He didn't like talking about it much, he always closed his emotions so she didn't like asking about it.

"That's what my parents tell me to call muggleborns. You are aren't you?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

She copied him, "Yes. But the word Mudblood means dirty blood. What exactly does it mean to have dirty blood? All have magic."

He looked puzzled, "I don't know." He changed subjects, "Uncle Severus dropped you off at the platform." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Hermione Granger." She shook his outstretched hand.

 **~.O.~**

"Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat yelled, his rim being pulled from Hermione's eyes as she stepped off the stool.

She should be happy, and she was, but not as much as she thought she would be. Coming up to Hogwarts had been so beautiful, the water under the boat glistened as magical creatures lit up underneath, flashes of scales shimmered as Merpeople leaped over the children's heads. The whole castle was just out of a fairytale as well, and the inside was only that much more with it's night sky overhead in the Great Hall. Hermione could see all sorts of constellations mixed in with the purples, blues, and grays at dinner, and now was a palace of sourceless blue and yellow light. Severus had told her she might end up in Gryffindor for all the audacity she had in her tiny little body, but she had thought maybe her guile would get her into Slytherin. It was an empty hope though, she knew it wouldn't happen.

Looking across the table to where the red- headed boy she had met on the train, Ron, sat stuffing his face, she couldn't help the disgust that filled her as he talked with his mouth full to Harry Potter who sat next to him. Harry wasn't at all who she had expected. The- Boy- Who- Lived. He was skinny, with a head of messy hair, and the same glittering eyes as she herself had when she had first seen all the new magic around her. Currently though, they were filled with confusion, and another emotion she couldn't quite place as he looked to the Professor's table on the dias; he was looking at Severus, and Severus was looking back with an undecipherable look as well, his mouth set in a tight light. His eyes flicked to hers for a moment, his head seeming to bow in a minute nod that you could see only if you were looking for it.

Hermione bowed her head to hid her grin. He's not going to ignore me! She admits, she's become a bit attached. Just a little.

It was time for class. Potions was her first, and she was excited to see her favorite teacher in his element, but she had a feeling that he wasn't going to be the same as he was when they were on their own. She was right; his class decorated with strangely odd things to look at fascinated her still though, as did their owner.

The door banging on the wall startled everyone into silence, and her Professor entered the room closing the blinds, kicking up dust that tickled her nose mixed with the spices in the cold air. He went to the front of the class and crossed his arms, sitting on the edge of his desk with his cold eyes roaming over his new students, pausing on Hermione who sat alone in the half of the class where the Gryffindors took up beside the clustered Slytherins. She barely kept her lips from twitching up in a smile.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began in his deep baritone, already the class was paying full attention to him, knowing that he would expect nothing less. "As there is little foolish wand waving in this class, many of you will hardly believe there is magic in the concoctions you will brew. I don't expect you to fully appreciate the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death- if only you will open your minds to it." He sounded so enamored with the subject that Hermione was on the edge of her seat, so engrossed in his little speech nothing could have turned her attention away from him.

"Let's begin." He pointed his wand to the blackboard and his elegant script appeared.

 **~.O.~**

That was the highlight of her day, and she had greatly missed the spicy smelling classroom by the time flying lessons started with Madame Hooch. Hermione had never liked heights, but flying lessons were mandatory for first years, and was just like any other class she thought. She botched it.

She was standing in between Draco and Harry when Madame Hooch asks everyone to try and float a few feet from the ground after they had summoned their brooms from the grass, Hermione gulped.

"Hermione?" Draco said from the corner of his mouth, seeing her wobbling in the air, trying not to be heard talking to a Muggleborn in front of others of his house.

"Alright, Miss. Granger?" Madame Hooch asked her as she came to her in the survey of her students.

Hermione was on the verge of tears, "I'm afraid of heights, Madame Hooch."

"You can come down then, go to Madame Pomfrey for a calming draught if you'd like," she replied, quickly getting distracted by Neville who had actually fallen from his broom and was holding his red wrist up. "Mr. Longbottom!"

Hermione came down to her feet as her hands shook, and wiped her tears, hiding her face in her bushy curls as she overheard low laughter coming from Harry and Ron.

"I'm surprised she hasn't got a book in that bloody stack of hers to help," Ron told Harry and Dean, sniggering.

Her breath caught in her throat as she fought a sob, why don't they like me? What did I do to make them hate me so much? Tears now blurred her vision as she dropped her broom and quickly made her way back into the castle, trying to make it seem as if she wasn't running. Two pairs of green eyes followed her the whole way.

Harry turned away from Hermione's retreating form back to Ron, "I think she heard you." And then Ron felt a pulling sensation on his leg as he toppled off his own broom, Draco's smirk widening as the rest of the class laughed at his reddening face.

 **~.O.~**

"Padma, have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked the girl laughing with her twin, he saw her face turn to his concerned when he asked his question.

"No," she said, "I saw her in the bathroom earlier but she was crying and told me to go away."

Now he felt even more bad, if she had been alone this whole time they really must have hurt her feelings.

"Thanks."

Going to where Ron was stuffing his face, as usual, he was just about to suggest that they apologize to the small girl when their queer Professor Quirrell ran into the Great Hall, "Troll! In the dungeon!" he yelled, a mask of terror written across his face, "Thought you ought to know," and then promptly fainted.

Harry's first thought was that Hermione didn't know, and that he was mental to be going right at the thing that even everyone was screaming about. "What are you doing? Are you mad? You're going right at the bloody thing!" he heard vaguely from Ron who was running behind him, contrary to his own words.

"Hermione doesn't know!" he yelled back to him, and then bumped into a large black figure at the steps leading down to the dungeons, knocking the breath out of him as Ron bumped into him as well.

"Potter, Weasley," the figure drawled high above their heads, "Did you not hear the Headmaster? You are to follow your house prefects to the dormitories. Now."

Harry got his breath back, scarcely recognizing the scorn he was faced with in his panic, "Professor! Hermione's been in the bathroom all afternoon and she doesn't know about the troll!"

Harry saw something spark in the big man's eyes, but it disappeared as soon as it popped up. "I will deal with her. Follow your housemates to your dormitory."

And he was gone in a flurry of billowing robes, leaving the two boys to gape at him until they were picked up slightly from their feet by their collars by Professor McGonagall and pushed in the direction they were told to go.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I will try to update at least every two weeks, but with school I don't have much time to even read! *Cry***

 **Please read my other stories as well, and reviews are appreciated (nice ones of course ;)) on any, and everything!**

 **If you like my Tom/ Hermione story 'Loyalty Across Time' i'm also currently trying to write an alternate universe point of view, but this story is first in my mind and I probably won't publish that one until it's fully done.**

 **Hugs and Kisses! Love you all!**

 **11\. 10. 17**


	3. 1st Year Part Two

**_Chapter 3_**

 **A/N: Thanks so much for all the great reviews and follows! XOXO**

 _"True love is like playing chess. A boy plays and is always afraid of losing his queen, and a girl risks everything just to protect her king."_

Hermione sat in the dark corner on the rough stone of the bathroom, the lanterns floating by occasionally lighting the blurry stall around her. Ron was exactly like the children had been in her muggle school, mean and cruel. But her mom had always said they were jealous. She didn't think so, but that was what she was trying to tell herself.

 _Sev likes me_ , she told her tears, and she giggled for talking to herself.

Unlatching the wooden door, she stepped out in front of the talking mirror. "Alright now dearie?" the mirror asked her, the faint outline of a woman coming into view, "Sometimes it's good to have a little cry. Can't keep it all bottled up."

Hermione smiled as she rinsed her face with cold water to try and make her red rimmed eyes less noticeable. "I'm alright now, thank you."

She heard loud banging steps lumbering down the hall, making everything rumble and the water in the basin ripple. She tried very hard not to scream as a ten foot troll came into view, but apparently didn't succeed very well as he came swaggering into the bathroom.

Severus' worries were confirmed as he heard a scream echoing through the hall from the girl's restroom, and the sound of shattering wood and glass. Running the extra few feet he had, the girl he had come to care for cowering in front of the large creature came into view. His mind focused on those red rimmed caramel eyes full of terror, swirled his wand in an arc, and defeated the troll in one motion of a flurry of robes and roars.

"Hermione," his voice was loud in the sudden silence of the troll's fall, feet from the girl he was now crouched in front of. He was barely aware of the other Professors coming into view underneath the open doorway as he got an armful of small curly headed girl.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she cried, not entirely sure of what she was apologizing for. All that mattered was burying herself into the familiar spicy smelling robes and not letting go.

"Quit your apologizing girl," he answered in her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist and hoisting her up into his arms like a babe with it's arms and legs twined round him like a monkey.

She said nothing as they passed the other gaping professors, keeping her limbs wrapped securely around him until she had calmed. Even long after they had arrived in the hospital wing and Severus had settled her down with a big hand running through her curls, he refused to leave her until she stopped shaking.

~.O.~

Madame Pomfrey had insisted that Hermione stay in the hospital wing for the night to make sure her nerves were calm, despite her protests that she was fine now.

"Want some Hermione?" Neville was shy, but he was a sweet boy. Not at all like the mean ones like Ron. He held out a chocolate frog he had said Harry and Ron dropped off earlier along with some other candies, "My Nan says chocolate makes everything better."

Hermione grinned a little at that, but it fell flat when she saw the other boys in question came into view, looking slightly out of breath and disheveled, "Thanks Neville. She's right." She kept her head down as the boys talked to each other and read the card…

 _"Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel."_

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered, biting into the chocolatey goodness of the squirming frog. "Ah, the Philosopher's Stone." She had read about his hundred of years old life in a book Severus had lent her.

"Um, Hermione?" she heard the hesitant voice of Harry Potter say from the side of the bed. She looked up and saw the tall boys looking down to her pajama clad body, Ron looking a little reluctant as Harry nudged him, whispering, _"Go on, Ron!"_

He pasted a smile on his face, "I'm sorry for what I said earlier, 'Mione," he said, shortening her name. "It was pointed out to me that it might of come out a little insensitive."

"Friends?" Harry asked hastily, as if she would changed her mind if she had a second to think about it.

She smiled at him, knowing she wouldn't expect much from Ron anytime soon, "Friends." she agreed, shaking his outstretched hand.

~.O.~

It was the first Quidditch game of the year, and everyone cheered in the House' stands, their breath sending up clouds up into the cold air. Hermione had always thought it was a bit early to start segregating children into different houses when they first arrived at Hogwarts; they tend to change as they get older and develop more skills.

"Go Harry!" People screamed around her as the boy in question started after the Golden Snitch, Hermione getting an earful as well from the half- giant beside her. The first time she had seen Hagrid, her first instinct was that he resembled a big teddy covered in all that hair he seemed to never brush, and that he was the most trusting person she had ever met which she wasn't sure was such a good thing.

"Bloody hell!" Ron cursed from her other side, and Hermione immediately saw what was going to happen. "Someone's jinxing his broom!"

Harry had dodged a Bludger that had just went past his head when his broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. He held on tight as the broom was determined to shake him off, but his broom had started to roll, and jerk, and twist. Hermione ran her eyes over the crowd and stopped on Severus who was mouthing something while looking at Harry, Professor Quirrell doing the same above him. A chill went through her body as if ice had been poured over her. She knew something had felt wrong around him when he had started looking at her more after Severus had taken her from the bathroom and the troll a few weeks ago.

"Its-" she tugged on Ron's sleeve, but he apparently saw the two Professors as well.

"Snape!" his voice turned hateful towards the wrong man.

"It's Professor Quirrell, Ron!" she tried in vain to tell the boys as they walked with Hagrid back to the castle. After Harry had been stabled on his broom he caught the Snitch, but Hermione's attention was back on Severus who had met her eyes and mouthed _later_ before he got up and followed a furious Professor Quirrell.

"Rubbish!" Hagrid interrupted their argument, "Why would either of the professors' do something like that?"

"Because we saw him come limping out of the room with the three- headed dog in it, that's why!" Harry blurt out in his temper, having agreed that the stuttering professor couldn't possibly have anything to do with trying to hurt a student.

"Three- headed- dog?" Hermione asked, confused as Harry turned to her and blushed.

"Hallowe'en," Ron told her out of the corner of his mouth just as Hagrid asked, "How do you know about Fluffy?"

 _"Fluffy?"_

Hagrid was the one blushing now, "Yeah- he's mine- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year- I leant him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"So he is guarding something," Harry exclaimed triumphant.

"Now listen to me righ' now," he said gruffly, getting redder in the face by the minute. "Yer meddlin' in something you have no business meddlin' in. You forget 'bout that dog, an' what it's guarding, that's strictly between Nicolas Flamel and Professor Dumbledore." he stomped off towards his hut.

"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time, turning to Hermione for the answers. As usual.

"He's the owner of the Philosopher's Stone," she replied, keeping her emotions off her face as well as those of her rival House.

~.O.~

 _Later_ didn't come until Christmas break, and she was so excited she almost knocked him down her hug was so fierce. Her parents were disappointed of course to not have her for the whole break, but consented to her keeping Severus company at Hogwarts as long as he had allowed himself into being roped into their tradition of going to a play a few days before Yule day. He had initially sneered at the request, but gave into Hermione's big eyed pleading. The boys had stayed at Hogwarts as well, but they had taken her library excuse with rolled eyes and a resigned 'see you later,' knowing nothing could pry her from her books for even a day. Severus hadn't approved of her making friends with them she could see as the first time they grouped together in Potions from his raised eyebrow, but she knew he wouldn't say anything as long as she was happy and not crying in bathrooms or deserted hallways anymore.

"Do you have to try to cut off blood circulation to my legs anytime you can?" he asked with his signature raised brow, his obsidian eyes that inspired fear into the hearts of others boring into her dancing ones.

"Yep," she said, popping the 'P' as she let go bouncing on her heels. "Can we go now?"

Severus lifted his eyes to the hall behind the small girl and checked to see if the children and Professors remaining between the holidays were still inside the Great Hall. "Let's go."

She took his hand like always and asked him the question that had been nagging at her for the few weeks since the Quidditch match, "Are you helping the Headmaster hide the Philosopher's stone for Nicolas Flamel?" She asked it with her childlike curiosity that could hide anything she wanted, but she knew that her Slytherin- like tendencies Severus had told her to keep hold of wouldn't work on the Potions master.

Severus stopped his silent feet to stare down at her just as Draco rounded the corner, "Happy Yule, Draco." Hermione smiled to him, knowing she would never have done otherwise in the presence of anyone else other than the man whose hand had tightened slightly round her's.

"Merry Yule, Hermione, Uncle," he replied, giving the latter a confused look as his eyes flickered to Hermione who gave nothing away and continued on, knowing he was interrupting something.

"Draco," Severus said as well, briefly nodding at the blonde boy before continuing on with Hermione in silence, contemplating his answer until they got into his private potions lab after clueing Hermione into his wards.

"Do those dunderheads know too?" he gave her his answer in his own question, he told her to get his ingredients and then sit in front of his brewing table on the high stool.

"Don't be mean, Severus. They saw you coming out of the room with Fluffy in it," she watched his elegant hands work, looking back up as he gave an undignified snort along with a black scowl.

"Bloody dog should be called Slobber is what he should be," he grumbled, giving her moonstone to crush.

She giggled, knowing he wasn't cross with her knowledge so much as the boys'. Hermione watched her professor's movements closely, each one was for a purpose; rather he was picking up an ingredient, giving her one to chop or grind, but other than that he stood perfectly still. Like a statue with a black blemish on his pale left forearm.

The first time Severus had told her about the Dark Lord, she was horrified. She thought that witches and wizards were are peaceful people, but that was her childish naivety she saw now. The only difference was that the wizards had the advantage of magic, and the man in front of her had more than a normal wizard which had made him to perfect weapon to whichever side of the war he chose to give his loyalty to. He hadn't told her certain things she knew, like his complete reason for joining the Death Eaters, but she knew enough and she wouldn't pry. One time she made the mistake of asking what he had to do; he had gotten this look on his face and she knew then that he hated himself for what was required of him, so she did what she did best. Hugged the life out of him, pushing all the affection she had grown for him in such a short time; hoping he would never get that look on his face again. He had said she was too young to hear such things, tugged on one of her plaits, and sent her off to get herself some ice cream.

"I can hear the wheels turning in your head, girl," he said, yanking her out of her thoughts, smirking, "Spit it out."

"You weren't even looking at me," she chastised him lightly, knowing he could feel her thinking from across the room with his back turned. "I think Professor Quirrell is trying to get the Stone."

He paused in his brewing, glancing up to look at her through his thick eyelashes, and then continues, "Why?"

"I saw him at the Quidditch game when Harry's broom started going weird," she bit her lip, "And he doesn't feel right. It's like a cloud surrounds him."

"Stay away from him outside of classes," he told her, putting his cauldron to simmer for a few hours and then rising to put away his ingredients.

Hermione pulled a shiny square box out of her school robes and held it out to him as he came back from organizing the last of it, "Happy Yule, Sev."

He stared at her for a moment, and then the box for two, and pulled out an identical box in gold from his own, "Happy Yule, girl."

She wouldn't open her present until he opened his and he rolled his eyes as she bit her lip. A lot of thought had gone into the bracelet she had made for him, and it wasn't easy. On a thin cuff, a Goblin made iron disc the size of a quarter sat nestled inside the durable leather, a calligraphic S engraved by Hermione's wand as well as the words _Love Always, Hermione_ carved into the inside of the leather. He said nothing as she gently took it from him to lace the four strings together, securing it with a permanent sticking charm only he could sever.

She was getting anxious, almost hopping on her feet, "Do you like?" she asked, seeing him run his long fingers over the smooth disc. "I put some protective charms into it. Mum gave me the idea- she gave Daddy a Hindu protective necklace a few years ago, it wasn't real of course but I thought that since I have magic I can use it to protect you now."

"Why would you think I need protection Hermione?" he asked.

"Because the Dark Lord will be back, and a baby isn't going to weaken him again." She told him, refusing to say _Voldemort_ as he had told her his Dark Mark burned even now, so many years later as when he was still at full power.

He just stared at her worried face, his eyes abnormally softer than normal with a ghost of a smile on his lips contradicting his swirling eyes. "Your turn."

She smiled in relief and blushed with his praise, squealing a bit as he raised her up back on her stool and picked up his gift he urged towards her once more, "I love presents!"

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Until next time… Love and kisses! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!**

 **11\. 24. 17**


	4. 1st Year Part Three

_**1st Year Part Three**_

 **Chapter 4**

 **A/N: I didn't really know how I going to go about this chapter when I was writing it and I really wanted to make it good cause this will be the end to year one and it turned out like this… so… I hope y'all like the different little point of view at the beginning!**

 **Just one thing and I'll let you get to reading. I'll try and make each year at least three chapters each, otherwise I will have more; which I'm sure I will when we get to the older years. :)**

 **In case you haven't noticed by that little paragraph there, I'm a little too organized *blush*. It's all my artist's brain :)**

 **Love as always! Hope you like where my mind's taking this story!**

 _"To love a person is to see all their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten."_

"My baby!" Mrs. Granger spun her only daughter around as soon as her husband had put her down.

"Mummy!" she squealed as her arms wrapped around her mother's neck, her vision blurry.

After only a few months into the school year, the Grangers' had felt the absence of their only daughter. She was always a happy child always bouncing around their feet, following them around wherever they went, and they missed having their little shadow following them around. They were glad to see Hogwarts hadn't dumbed down her personality any, as they had known the first few weeks were hard on her as she had always had trouble making friends when she was so shy.

Hermione had been talking a mile a minute since Severus had apparated onto their doorstep with her hand wrapped into his, but she stopped abruptly.

"C'mon, Severus," she pulled his arm until she had brought him to the couches her parents had sat on when she realized he was hovering in the background, and she wouldn't allow that at all.

When the man had first came into their home with their daughter's Headmaster, they had thought he had looked very… striking in all his back frock that had given him more of a priestly impression than a Professor. He was a very quiet man with a face that would scare anyone away with it's seemingly permanent scowl framed by his long shiny hair. Now though, all they cared about was how he accommodated their little girl so well, and how his face was now softer compared to those previous months when they were still getting to know each other. Even if he did look like a giant seated next to her petite frame.

"Love, maybe we should all get dressed. We need to leave in about an hour and a half."

"Alright Mummy," Hermione hopped off the sofa as Severus rose beside her, giving him a quick hug before grabbing her mother's hand and skipping up the stairs.

"The girls are changing in Hermione's room," Mr. Granger told the quiet man who had not said a word since he came into the house, they drained the last of their tea, "We can use mine and Sheila's."

The dark man nodded.

The men could hear giggles coming from behind the purple door across the hall as Mark got his suit out of his closet, and Severus enlarged his from his robe pocket. They had not said much to each other, but is was not an entirely awkward silence though Mark felt like he had to say something. Looking over to the man in question he stopped short, and quickly glanced away, his thoughts flying from his head. Severus Snape was a man of many mysteries to the people he didn't let into his life, and Mark now felt as if he had seen one he shouldn't have.

"That's a very pretty necklace, lovie," Sheila told her daughter as she ran shining oil throughout the caramel curls she had inherited from her mother.

Hermione's smile could shame the sun as she fingered the small white pearl nestled in the hollow of her throat, "Sev gave it to me for Yule, Mum."

"It doesn't have a clasp," her pale fingers ran over the gold chain.

"He said it's tradition for parents or a mentor to give a new witch a pearl to help focus our magic, and it doesn't come off until our magic cracks it."

"That was nice of him," Sheila smoothed Hermione's ankle length green dress down a final time. "All done."

Hermione immediately rushes into her parent's room, "Hermione!" Her mother scolds, knowing she had just forgotten her manners for a while wanting to show the men her dress.

Sheila stumbles to a stop in the doorway, her hand making it to cover her mouth as she sees the scars covering the man who was currently smiling slightly at Hermione's twirling.

"Sheils," Mark came to her side fully dressed, only missing his suit coat and kissed her cheek. "You see it right?"

She nodded as tears pricked at her eyes. From what she could see from his open shirt, Severus had thin silvery cross scars covering his lean chest, a large burn disappeared under the fabric on his stomach, and a trail of cigarette burns in a seemingly random pattern.

"Hermione didn't even blink," her husband said lowly as they watched their daughter help button up those scars and hide the man's secrets behind a black veil. "I think she already knew."

She now had her hands on her hips, and Mark and Sheila immediately knew that as her battle stance along with the furrow between her brows. They assumed Severus' was his arms crossing his chest as they were doing right now; he apparently knew what was coming too. What Hermione sets out to get, she doesn't back down till she gets it.

"It's all black, Severus." she said, deadpan.

"It's a muggle suit, Hermione," his first words of the night in the same tone as the little girl's who stood on the bed sizing him up.

"You can't wear a muggle suit and call it a compromise Severus when all of it's still all black! You need color!"

"It's a compromise if I changed, girl. That's the definition of a compromise."

"Can I at least change your shirt to silver?" she gave him the big shiny puppy eyes, as he rolled his own.

"Fine."

"Yay!" she took his wand out of his robes and taped it to the black shirt, and the black melted away to a slightly shimmery silver to match her shoes. Giggling she throws her arms around his neck and kisses his cheek, and he slides her to the ground next to her now smiling parents he gently yanks one of her loose curls.

Hermione had fallen asleep on Severus' shoulder in the car with both her skinny arms wrapped around his left arm, but she could vaguely hear when him and her parents started talking.

"Did you like the show, Severus?" she heard her mother ask him quietly so as not to wake her.

"It was very nice," his deep voice rumbled through his chest and she turned her face in, pulling her dangling feet up on the leather seat so that her legs cross over her Sev's.

"Have you ever been before?"

He paused a moment, "No. My parents were not particularly the type of people who should have had children in the first place." Hermione's hands found his and squeezed, he tightened his own in answer. "And I have not had anyone to go with so I have never gotten around to it."

"We do it every year if you would like to come with us again?"

"Yes." Hermione said sleepily, her mouth quirking as low laughter filled the car.

"The princess has spoken," Mark said, looking into the rearview mirror to see his daughter cuddling up to the large man who clearly loved her, and wasn't so much afraid to show it to her as to other people.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger had never thought they would have a daughter as special as they one that had had, and they couldn't think of anyone better to watch after her than the man whose eyes expressed everything that he masked from his face.

"Goodnight, Sev," she said in his neck as he laid her in her purple sheeted bed.

"Goodnight, Hermione," he replied, tucking the sheets in around her after transforming her shiny clothing into a nightdress.

"I love you."

Severus froze where he was raising from his crouch beside her bed as an emotion rose that he had thought he had only felt for one other person in the world, one that has been long dead.

He kissed her forehead, his lips lingering to smell her clean scent and whisper, "I love you too, my girl."

 **~.O.~**

"Hermione!" Harry spun the girl around in a circle, lifting her off her feet slightly. "I missed you so much!"

"Harry!" she laughed, then put her hand on her tiny hips, "You need help with your potions essay again don't you?"

"Yep."

She rolled her eyes and pushed her arm through his, "C'mon. To the library we go. Where's Ron?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wanted him home for Christmas, his brother decided to come home for the holidays."

"I'm not writing it for you, Harry," Hermione told him after only a few minutes of the boy only staring at his paper, up to her, then back down to his paper.

"Please?"

"Professor Snape knows how I write, you really think he's going to believe you wrote a two foot long paper on the effects of crushed moonstone in potions?"

"No," he pouted.

"Nope."

As they were leaving, it was pretty close to curfew and they were the last ones left in the dark hallways.

"I want to show you something," he told her as they passed a deserted hall, "C'mon." He grabbed her hand and guided her through the dark into a room with a very large golden lined mirror.

Inscribed upon the top was...

 _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

The Mirror of Erised. Harry had found the Mirror of Erised.

Hermione's breath caught as Harry was whispering excitedly in her ear, "I found it a couple days ago, I showed Ron but he didn't see them. You see them right, 'Mione? 'Mione?"

Hermione didn't answer him for a moment, too captivated by what she was seeing in her reflection, "No Harry, it's called the Mirror of Erised. It shows you the thing you most want in the world."

They sat on the floor, and became captivated by their reflections for what seems like hours rather than mere minutes.

"You should go up Harry," she told him after he yawned for the third time. "I'll be up in a few minutes."

"Alright, night 'Mione," he hugged her shoulders and briefly touched the mirror with a finger with a sad glint in his eye before he disappeared under his newly acquired cloak, a dark shadow taking his place beside her no to long after.

He was quiet for a moment, "What do you see, girl?"

She smiled, even after all this time he still refused to call her anything other than 'girl.'

"I see us." he looked down at her quizzically. "We're holding hands, and your Dark Mark's gone."

He was still looking at her, not saying a thing as she burst into tears moments after her lip started wobbling, and pulled her into his lap.

"What do you see, Severus?" she sniffled, calmed by the hand stroking her curls.

He closed his eyes, and then opened them slowly, his affection for the girl in his arms overwhelming, "I see myself, Hermione."

"Can you promise me something?"

"I will try." he hefted her up into his arms, eager to get away from the thrice damned mirror that gave him the reflection of the very thing Hermione had said she was seeing.

"Promise you won't leave me?" she asked with all the innocence of child.

"You have my word." he said, knowing, but hoping, he would never have to break this oath.

The spy, so wrapped up in the small girl, he only had the vaguest notion of the eyes watching them from the shadows, but couldn't be bothered to care.

 **~.O.~**

"I swear Harry!" Hermione says exasperated, him still going on and on about how Severus is the one after the Philosopher's Stone and that he heard him threatening Quirrell in the hall after he had left her to the mirror. "How do you know he's not just pretending to threaten him for information to see if he's the one trying to steal it, Harry?"

He paused in his tirade, looking as if he was really thinking about the possibility, but then got the stubborn tilt to his chin he always did when he was set on something, "He's evil, Hermione." And he walked ahead of her and knocked on Hagrid's hut door.

Hermione threw her arms up, "Boys! Morganna help me."

"Harry, Hermione," Hagrid greeted them, shuffling in front his smouldering fire, "What're ye doin' here?"

"What are you hiding Hagrid?" Hermione asked curiously, trying to peek around his big frame.

He blocked her before she could see what was in the pot above the flames, "Nothin.'" he said, but the rumbling of the pot contradicted his words.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "We won't tell anyone Hagrid. We promise."

He sighed, resigned,"Oh, alrigh.'"

"Oh." she breathed as the half- giant put a big black egg on the table in front of the two children.

"Is that a dragon egg?" Harry asked, trying to poke at the now clicking oval, Hermione slapped his hand away.

"Yea," Hagrid puffed his chest up, seeming proud. "Won it off a stranger in the pub las' nigh.' Look! It's hatching!"

It was, the clicking noise grew louder as cracks lined the sides, then a scraping noise split it into pieces as a baby dragon flopped onto the wooden table.

"Aw!" Hermione laughed, "It's so cute!"

Even though the baby looked like a crumpled black umbrella with it's wings bigger than it's body, and it's snout a little big for it's body, his bright orange eyes blinked tiredly at the new people in front of him and sneezed, smoke streaming out of it's nostrils.

Hermione tickled him underneath it's little chin and it sighed happily, flopping down to take a nap with it's head using her other hand as a pillow. She just wanted to pick it up and squeeze it and love it to death. Then she looked up, "Hagrid, what are you going to do when he gets bigger, and he starts to breath his fire?"

Hagrid started pouting, but eventually Hermione got through to him and persuaded him to tell Dumbledore and maybe he could visit the little one as he got older. As they try and hurry into the castle before curfew, they realize it's way past as the sun is completely behind the castle, and Professor McGonagall is coming towards them with Neville and Draco by the neck.

"I knew I should have brought my Invisibility Cloak," Harry muttered next to her.

"Harry, Hermione!" Neville said as soon as they came close enough. "I was trying to find you to warn you, but- "

"Mr. Longbottom!" McGonagall looked ready to breath fire as she gave them a good reprimand, and sentenced them detention after exams.

As they walk to the Forbidden Forest behind Filch, Hermione got a chill that had nothing to do with the light snow falling around them, and grabbed Draco's hand. Harry and Neville were in front of them gripping about going into the forest they were told to stay out of, and even if they broke every rule set to them that was one they wouldn't.The only thing that eased her nerves a bit was that she wasn't alone and maybe she could find some potions ingredients for Severus.

"Are you alright?" the blonde asked, giving her hand a light squeeze.

"We shouldn't be out here, it doesn't feel right."

Hagrid paired Neville and Draco together, to which Neville whimpered and Draco scowled, and Harry and Hermione together with Fang.

"Don' go too far, and send up sparks when ye fin' somethin'." Hagrid told them.

"I love Hagrid," Hermione said, hopping over a overturned tree, "But sometimes he makes some really poor decisions."

"You got that right." Harry said, getting farther ahead of her but Hermione saw the unicorn blood they were told to look for.

Before Hermione could yell for Harry, she saw a figure slithering over the dead leaves on the ground that sounded like a gliding cloak. She screamed loudly, a terrifyingly scared shriek that caused birds to scatter through the trees and something to screech in reply in the distance. All she saw was the figure gliding closer to her, the sound of hissing coming from the darkness of the cowled head, and in the distance the sound of her name being called.

Then she was engulfed in a familiar scent and being picked up off her feet as the soothing voice tried to calm her furious shaking, she clung to his neck and sobbed into his neck.

The scream chilled the other boys who heard it and they all ran toward the girl, but didn't expect to find Severus Snape holding her aloft and trying to calm the small girl.

"What happened?" Hagrid thundered up to the two people.

And then he gulped as well as Draco, Harry, and Neville at the absolutely furious look decorating the Potions Master's face.

 **~.O.~**

"Bloody hell!" Ron said to Hermione and Harry once Harry had gotten through telling him about everything that had happened before he got back. "Why does everything fun happen when I'm gone?"

"Stop, Ron," Harry whispered to the redhead, glancing over to Hermione who was looking the other way and looking as if she was miles away.

Ron was absolutely oblivious.

The incident in the forest had changed her, made her more quiet, and it had changed Harry's view of Snape, even if it was just a little. He had seen the way Hermione had clung to his hated Professor, and the way the man who never yelled more than raising his voice across the class had to try and keep his voice from raving at Hagrid. Maybe she was right about him, but Harry wouldn't tell Ron that.

The floating stair they were on suddenly came to a stop to the door leading to the third floor corridor, and Ron took off yelling that it was cracked open.

"Ron!" Harry and Hermione whisper yelled, not knowing if anyone was still in the room. They came up behind him and peeked through the crack, seeing that Fluffy was asleep, and a trapdoor underneath him was open.

The boys ran into the room with Hermione yelling after them for a moment before giving up and following them, knowing before she could get a professor they would already have gotten them in some sort of trouble. "Boys," she muttered, "Never thinking through things before going into something."

Fluffy's eyes opened, and the room echoed with his growls before Hermione found a flute on the ground and played it until they dropped once again.

"Nice," Harry commented as they sneaked under the big slobbery puppy.

"Thanks," she said, she felt the same feeling as before they had gone into the forest, and she really didn't want to go down into the black hole that was the open door. "Lumos maxima." It was too dark to see anything. "Harry, you go first and see what's at the bottom and light your wand so we can see."

He jumped, "It's some kind of plant. It's grabbing at my legs." His wand was only a pinprick of light at the bottom of the black.

After getting past the Devil's Snare and the flying silver and golden keys, they came to the wizard's chess board, and that was when Hermione knew it was all a game. The Philosopher's Stone should have never been put beneath a school, even if it was the safest one in the world. The obstacles to get to the chess board, they were things three young children could get through, and they were weak at best.

The chamber was so dark that they could see nothing, until they stepped onto the board and the torches along the walls lit. They were on the white side, facing the intimidatingly featureless black chessmen

"Let's play." Ron said, and that was the last they said before their white knight was taken by the black bishop and dragged off the board, leading to and ending where Hermione was the one to be dragged off the board by the black queen.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry and Ron's faces were a blur in front of her, and her head was pounding.

"Be careful, Harry," she whispered, "You're only a boy."

Harry woke to the sound of whispering to his right, his head still groggy from being knocked out by He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named. Even moving his head slightly felt like a knife where he fell on the stone steps after Voldemort had disappeared in screaming black smoke.

Hermione was sitting up and talking to someone in the shadows.

"It was too easy to get through those tasks," she croaked, and the person gave her the glass of water on her bedside. "Did you know?"

"You shouldn't have gone in there, girl," Snape's face came into the moonlight shining through the high window, confusing Harry as to why he was there when McGonagall was their Head of House. "You could have died, I said I was handling it."

"The boys were going in. They would have gotten themselves killed, and you know it." Harry was shocked their sweet little Hermione was talking back to a teacher, especially to one who had the reputation he did.

"So you decided to get killed alongside them?" he replied in his sardonic tone with the lift of his eyebrow, his voice deeper than usual.

Hermione sighed and Harry could see the arm on her other side move and heard the rustling of her sheets, "I'm sorry"

Harry fell asleep, wondering how Hermione was so familiar with the Slytherin Head of House, and the words Quirrell had said to him floated back into his mind…

 _There is no good and evil, there is only power._

He remembered what he had told Hermione when they were going to Hagrid's, when he had said Snape was evil, and that Quirrell had seemed afraid of Snape when he had talked of him. Not for the first time did Harry think that maybe Hermione was a better judge of character that him, and it was a given she was more observant than him.

He would not remember his friend and the Potion Master's conversation the next morning, but Quirrell's words would stick with him until the day he saw who Hermione and Snape truly were.

Severus squeeze her hand back, "Dumbledore was testing us wasn't he?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know, girl."

 **A/N: In case you haven't noticed, things are a bit changed around from the books/ movies, and I'm using them both as inspiration.**

 **Suggestions for later chapters/ scenes you would like to see are always welcome! XOXO**


	5. 2nd Year Part One

**_Part 2: Chapter 5_**

 **A/N: Hi everyone! Just two little things that was going around my head, I have a bit of trouble writing younger people cause I always overthink everything so if Hermione's thinking seems a bit older than her actual age it's cause of that, but Hermione's intelligence is higher than normal for her age anyway so it's okay for her.**

 **And also, I've gotten a couple reviews saying/ asking about their romantic relationship. Hermione is to young right now, but they will eventually get to that kind of relationship in her fourth year as some jealousy goes around :P**

 **I'm currently writing year three (can't wait to get to four!), so it won't be long...**

 **I love all of y'all's reviews!**

 **Thanks for reading! Hope y'all had good holidays and have a good New Year!**

 _"What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth they share it."_

 _Summer, Malfoy Manor_

"Hermione, this is Lucius and Narcissa," Severus told the girl hiding halfway behind him and clinging to his legs like a barnacle.

"Hello," she shyly told the two intimidating blondes.

It was the end of summer between her first and second years, and in only that year everything had changed drastically in Hermione's life. She had found out she was one of the magical beings in the world, a man who had not let anyone into his life in many years had let her take it and twist it around her finger, and she had made friends with a boy who was the target of a wizard that is now known to be alive.

She had a feeling that these actions would lead her on the course to the rest of her life; with the help of the man that was guiding her to his side by the hand.

"Hello, Hermione," Narcissa smiled down at her, "Draco's in the garden if you want to play with him while we talk to Severus."

The small girl looked away from the tall woman and the long haired man who had done nothing but stare at her and Severus since they had apparated to their home in front of the iron gate.

"We'll be out in a minute," he told her, nodding to the clear doors where they could see Draco flying on his broom above the lake running through the backyard.

"Who is she to you, Severus?" Lucius asked once the pleasantries were exchanged, lifting an eyebrow at the dark man.

"She is a girl Lucius," is all he would say or admit to anyone other than the girl herself.

"She is muggle- born."

"I am well aware of that fact."

They were quiet for a while watching the kids chasing each other around, Narcissa whispered to her husband, "Tell him, darling."

Severus was the one who now raised the eyebrow, Lucius sighed, "The Dark Lord has given me a task."

The dark man tensed and snapped his obsidian eyes to the pale man, "How strong is he?"

"Not very, Severus. He has made his presence known to Dumbledore, and his followers will know soon enough. Hogwarts has eyes and ears that extend to the outside, and until our Lord is truly dead, we will never be free."

"Have you seen it?" Severus asked, referring to the darkening snake and skull marring their left forearm.

"He will be back, Severus. It is inevitable; at least if we help him back to power we will stand in high favor for a while. We have to think about the children now." Narcissa said with a sad smile as she watches the children coming towards them.

"Severus, lookit." Hermione said, bypassing the two empty chairs in front of her professor to climb onto his lap, she held up a small grey garden snake twined around her forearm. "Isn't she cute?"

"Yes, girl." he said, stroking the little thing's head as it lifted up and flicked her small tongue out it to taste his finger.

"Can I keep her?" Hermione asked, micking his movements under her chin.

"She was born outside, it would be cruel to lock her up."

She pouted but let the small creature to slither lazily into the sun on the cool grass, and then took her place back up in Severus' lap as the Malfoy's looked on at the unlikely couple.

How could one little girl change a man's life so completely that she could bring out a side of him that had been buried by a lifetime of abuse and neglect by those who were supposed to protect him?

~.O.~

"Are you coming with us, Severus?" Hermione's father asked the man as they got to the bricks that concealed Diagon Alley.

"No, I have some mandrake seeds to pick up from the Apothecary," he said tapping the bricks above Hermione's head as she was still to short to do it herself. "Good day." he nodded to them, and squeezing Hermione's hand before he swept himself into the crowds of people.

"This is beautiful!" Sheila said, looking to all the people in their colorful robes, the owls flying over their heads, and the magical shops they had never seen before as Severus had brought her supply shopping before her first year.

"Come on, Mum, Dad," she said grabbing their hands, "Hold on, you don't want to get lost in the crowd."

Finally they arrived at Flourish and Blotts, the inside looking as if the whole of Diagon Alley's customers were trying to fit inside the large bookstore.

"Look Hermione, there's the man who wrote all the books on your list!"

If there was ever a man in the world that was the complete opposite of Severus Snape, it was Gilderoy Lockhart. In his forget- me- not colored robes, and his golden hair and white teeth so bright they could shame the sun. Hermione thought she would much better prefer the dark man anyday.

"Isn't he handsome, Hermione?" her mother obviously thought differently as she whispered into her daughter's ear.

Hermione's face must have shown her apathy because her mother laughed, "Or maybe you would prefer black hair and robes better, darling?"

She felt her cheeks blush, "I'm going to look for my other books, Mum." she said, walking away from her chuckling parents and up to the second floor to browse the charms' section.

"It's disgusting," she dropped the book she had been browsing in surprise as Draco's sneering voice sounded behind her. "Sorry." He bent down to pick up her book.

"Thanks," she took it back, looking down to where the girls surrounding Lockhart cooing and preening. "I know."

"I thought you would like him," he smirked at her as she smacks his arm, "all the other girls seem to. Or maybe my uncle is more to your liking?"

She blushes once more and turns sharply away from his smug face and saw the Weasleys entering the bookstore, she told Draco she had to go down. "Will you try and not antagonize the boys this year? Or not go out of your way to anger them at least?"

"I make no promises," he said into her curls as she hugs him and shakes her head in exasperation, knowing he's as stubborn as Severus when he dislikes something or someone.

"Hermione!" she heard two twin voices that were just turning deep call to her as she was picked up from the last step on the stairs, two strong arms picking her up off the floor between them.

"Hi Fred, hi George," she laughed as they put her down grinning.

 _"How can you always-"_

 _"tell us apart 'Mione?"_ they finished each other's sentences.

She laughed as her parents came up behind her and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley found their sons and started talking to the Grangers', Ginny and Ron tagging along and coming up to Hermione.

"Hello," the redhead said, shyly smiling at the older girl.

"Hello." Hermione replied, turning to Ron, "Where's Harry?"

"Don't know," he shrugged, "he got lost in the floo. Hagrid found us and said he'd look for him and bring him here."

He just so happened to be coming in the store now, dirty and disheveled, "Ron! Hermione!" he looked glad to see them.

"Hi, Harry. Where'd you go?"

"Knockturn Alley," he whispered to them. "I saw Snape and Malfoy and his father in Borgin and Burkes trying to sell something."

"I didn't know the greasy git was friends with those ferrets. Dad's been raiding all the Death Eater's houses for dark objects, I bet they were trying to sell them before he got to them first." Ron said with a nasty scowl on his face, Harry nodding along to what he said.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, not at all liking that they were seen or the boy's name calling. "You don't know that."

He turned to her with his mouth open, so Harry, knowing that a fight was coming nudged them both as everyone's attention turned to Lockhart who had started speaking.

~.O.~

Hermione knew as soon as the Sorting ceremony began that the boys had done something when they didn't turn up to stuff their faces at the feast, and it had something to do with Severus. She had sat with them, on the train as well as Ginny who had been feeling nervous, and she had seen Severus at the gates when they had arrived in the carriages that had been seemingly been pulled by air, but she hadn't seen them since the platform. After hugging and congratulating Ginny on getting into Gryffindor she snuck off into the dungeons where she could hear the furious voice of Severus echoing from his open door.

Walking just up to the door but still hiding in the shadows, she saw the two boys cowering in front of the livid man.

"Not only did you flout the Statute of Secrecy with your little excursion and being seen by no less than seven muggles," he began, his body leaning against his desk with his arms crossed. "You have done damage to a very old, and very valuable Whomping Willow that has been on these grounds since before you were born. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, doesn't he Mr. Weasley?" he stayed true to his deep voice, letting the echo of the dungeons amplify his anger for him.

Ron was flushed a deep red, his ears red as beets, "Honestly sir, I think it did more damage to us than we did to it." He did not acknowledge the insinuations Severus had made about his father, for once thinking ahead and not wanting to get into more trouble than he was already in.

Severus only stared for a moment, "If you were in my house, you would surely be on your way home right this instant. Come with me."

He swept from his office with the abashed boys in tow, briefly touching Hermione's hand to recognize her presence. After they had turned the corner she entered the room and closed the door behind her, knowing no one would question her absence from the Great Hall as Harry and Ron were absent as well.

Severus' office was disturbingly interesting to Hermione. The first time she had been in it she had looked at each and every jar he had on display, and committed each to memory. Little jars filled with potions, dried flowers, and other questionable things lined each and every lacquered shelf that didn't hold thick and thin books on all manner of subjects. At one time or another she had seen him use each ingredient, or read each book; he would even let her read all the books on the lower shelves, but forbade her from even touching the ones on the higher shelves that contained the darker material that not even the Restricted Section had.

"Why are you not at the feast, girl?" Severus asked once he had come back from giving the boys over to Professor McGonagall.

"You weren't at the feast," was all the explanation she gave him, "What did they do?"

"Your dear friends drove a flying car to school after the barrier at the Platform closed."

She shook her head and yawned, crawling onto his lap, "Will you tell me another story about the Founders?"

He leaned back against the arm of his dark grey sofa and combed his fingers through her soft curls, her little fingers snaking up and lazily playing with his that was the complete opposite of her's.

"Which story?"

"About Salazar."

"Alright. Once, long ago there was a man called Salazar Slytherin..."

~.O.~

"I see your two precious Gryffindor's still darken our halls Minerva," Severus told his colleague during morning black coffee, his eyes on the girl who had fallen asleep in his lap last night and her two dunderhead friends.

"I can't see why you insist on being so humbug all the time, Severus," she told the man sitting to her left, not bothering to look at him as she knew he would most likely have his signature scowl painted cross his skinny face.

"Would you like a lemon drop, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, holding out the pale candy in his palm in front of Minerva who sat in between them.

"Keep your candy, old man," he said sneering, knowing that they were laced with a potion that would make you feeling happy the rest of the day. "I'm just fine with my coffee and my eggs."

Minerva snorted, glancing sideways to the man before doing a double take, "Severus?"

He took a deep sigh, not at all liking the conversational people in the mornings, "Yes, Minerva?"

"Is that a braid in your hair?" Pomona and Flitwick who sat on the other side of Severus stopped their conversation on the growing number of mandrakes in her greenhouse to look at Severus' hair, Dumbledore also taking a look from Minerva's right.

His lip quirked and glanced down to a laughing Hermione who was chatting with the Weasley girl, "Is there?."

 **A/N: XOXO**

 **12\. 29. 17**


	6. 2nd Year Part Two

**Chapter 6**

 **A/N: Happy readings! Hope everyone had a nice New Years!**

 _"Arrogance is the camouflage of insecurity."_

 _-Tim Fargo_

Hermione had always loved the Hogwarts greenhouses with it's warm corners the colors of the plants, and the contrast of stepping outside into the cold Scotland air from the humid house.

"Alright everyone!" Professor Sprout began, a smile covering her disgruntled look now she was free of the narcissistic Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who had snagged Harry. "The Newt level Potions classes will be brewing Mandrake Restorative Draught, and Professor Snape has asked us to re-pot the mandrakes in preparation. Now, everyone take a pair of earmuffs."

Mandrakes were so cutely ugly in the way that they resembled babies, very wrinkly cranky babies. Purplish green in color, Hermione cringed at the thought of her ears bleeding from their piercing cries. Trying to re-pot them was a nightmare, but Hermione found that if you tickled it's belly they would stop wriggling so much and were loads more amicable to being put back into its soil. The boys didn't have so much luck, their's only cried louder, threatening to pierce the protective muffs while they squirmed, kicked, flailed their tiny fists, or gnashed their sharp little teeth.

"Professor Sprout?" Hermione got the Herbology teacher's attention after class had ended.

"Hello, Hermione," the plump woman smiled at her, "Great job with the mandrakes today, good idea with tickling their stomachs to get them to cooperate."

"Thank you. I was just wondering how the Whomping Willow was doing?"

She got a sour look on her face, scowling at the door as if Professor Lockhart was standing right behind it, "It's on the mend, I fear though if Lockhart keeps poking at it it will take longer for it's limbs to heal." she got a mischievous look on her face. "Or spin him around on one if it's good thick branches again."

Hermione chuckled at the image, knowing that's all she would see when she was in class later looking at the teacher in all his pastel robed glory.

~.O.~

As it turned out, the visual image of him cowering before a roomful of cornish pixies was better, and in that moment, Hermione greatly doubted he had been the one to do all the amazing things he had written about in his book.

"Did you see his face?" she squealed, laughing with Ron as they made their way to Harry's quidditch practice. "They were only pixies!"

"It's not funny, 'Mione," Ron scowled rubbing his ear that sported tiny little teeth marks. "It could be infected. Look how red it is?"

"Ron, it's red because you keep rubbing at it," she pulled his arm down as they got to the green field that sported a group of Slytherins and Gryffindors facing each other.

Uh oh, Hermione thought as Oliver snatched a piece of paper from Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint.

"I, Professor Severus Snape give the Slytherin team permission to practice on the quidditch pitch today, owing to the need of training their new seeker."

Draco came to the front of the group, and Hermione knew all hell was going to break loose from the smug look on his face that he was throwing at Harry.

Just then Flint saw them coming and got an unattractive look on his face, "Oh look here, Gryffindor's pet Weasel, and the pet Mudblood."

Hermione's body went cold, as if ice water had been poured over her head. For a moment the pitch was silent, everyone's head snapping towards the Slytherin captain, even Draco's, and then there was an uproar of yelling. The other Slytherin players, with the exception of Draco, jumped in front of Flint to keep Fred and George from jumping him. Alicia was shrieking in the background and hitting each boy she could reach, and Ron had his broken wand out. But Hermione wasn't listening, or even seeing anything that was happening. Severus had told her what it had meant when he had first told her about the Death Eater's views, and he admitted the only time he had ever said the word was once to a close friend in school and had been loath to ever say it again.

Turning around, she calmly walked into the castle and down to the dungeons without looking back to the two rivaling groups.

Knocking on the Potions class door, Severus invited her in, "Girl?" he had a questioning look about his face as he saw the blank look on the usually upbeat and open little girl.

He was sitting at his desk grading papers with his signature red ink splashed about the pages in scathing remarks, "Flint called me a mudblood."

Severus gave Flint detention for the next two weeks, and Hermione had spent the rest of the day helping him grade first year papers. She had been walking back to Gryffindor tower when she met a very pale Harry on the stairs, looking as if he had seen a ghost on one of the muggle movies she liked so much.

"You don't hear it do you?" he asked her, saying he had heard a voice asking to kill someone, that it had smelled blood.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said, seeing he really thought he heard something no one else could hear but himself. "Don't tell anyone else," she told him, knowing they would think he was mad. "If you hear it again we'll figure out who it is, okay?"

He looked at her, relieved that at least someone believed him, "Oh! Are you okay? We couldn't find you after quidditch practice, and then we had detention."

She smiled at him soothingly, "I'm fine, Harry. It's the first time, but I'm sure it's not the last time I'll hear something like that. You didn't have to get upset for me."

"Yes, I did. I was bullied enough by my cousin to know how it feels, and you're one of best friends." He grinned at her, and Hermione was glad to see he seemed to forget the voice for the moment. "Plus, you and your little arms couldn't reach his face high enough to punch him like I did."

She fake gasped, and punched his arm lightly as he put an arm around her and walked with it wrapped around her skinny shoulders the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower, never seeing the darkening glint in her eye.

~.O.~

Hermione had heard of Deathday Parties, and she hadn't liked it when she read about them, and they were as awful as the books had said.

"Let's leave now, Harry," she told him shivering, pulling on his sleeve. With all the ghosts around it was freezing in the small room, as well as smelling awful with all the rotten food. "Maybe we can get to the Great Hall in time for dessert."

"Alright," he grabbed her hand in order to squeeze past the ghosts as going through them was worse than falling into the Great Lake during winter, his warm hand sending sparks into her cold one. "Let's find Ron."

They found him by the door looking like he was ready to bolt, "Finally guys! Can we leave now?"

Hermione looked behind them to see if anyone was looking, "Go, now," she pushed Ron by the shoulder and pulling Harry along by his hand.

"Pudding might not be finished yet," Ron said hopefully, leading the way to the Entrance Hall.

But Harry had stopped a few feet behind them, his face white as milk.

"Harry?" Hermione asked worried, he looked the same way he did when she had found him on the stairs a couple of weeks ago. "Do you hear the voice again?"

"Voice?" Ron was confused, clearly Harry had taken her advice and not told anyone else, the redhead looked her her and she shook her head.

"Wait- " he said, freezing for a minute, and then taking off up the stairs, "It's going to kill someone." Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last deserted hallway.

Or not so deserted.

Along the wall ahead, something red was shining. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the bright torches...

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware."

"Oh, Merlin," Hermione breathed, her shaking hand went up to grab her pearl necklace as she usually did in stressful times. Mrs. Norris hung by her tail over a puddle of water from a sconce.

She's been petrified, Hermione saw, her thoughts going a mile a minute. The mandrakes...

For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "We should get out of here. We don't want to be found here."

But it was too late. The feast was over, and hundreds of happy students traipsed into the hall, the bustle stopping suddenly as the people in front caught sight of the message on the wall.

"Mrs. Norris!" Mr. Filch had arrived complaining about the hold up, but saw his familiar instead. Hermione felt tears prickle at the corners of her eyes as she watched the usually rigid man have an internal breakdown as he unhooked his cat and cradled her stiff body in his arms.

"What is going on here?" Dumbledore came to the front of the gaping crowd that had started to murmur but fell silent to make a path for the tall headmaster, Severus, Lockhart, and Professor McGonagall. He ran his eyes over the four people in front of him, not at all looking like his usual dotty self, "Argus, Miss. Granger, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, come with me please."

Hermione glanced at Mr. Filch one more time, seeing a pale Ginny in the crowd behind him, before Professor McGonagall ushered them forward into Lockhart's dark office.

After some gentle poking and prodding, Dumbledore came to the same conclusion Hermione already had; McGonagall stood inspecting the animal as well, and Lockhart was hovering all around them making suggestions that had caused the poor caretaker to start dry sobbing into his hands.

Severus had only loomed in the background, half in shadow wearing a most peculiar face as he looked at Hermione.

Dumbledore questioned Harry and Ron as to why they were in the hallway, but Hermione could not take her eyes off of the little furry body of Mrs. Norris and didn't hear what their replies were. She turned back into the conversation as Lockhart said something Severus didn't like and his reply of…

 _"I believe I am Potions Master at this school"_ ended the conversation and they were sent up to bed.

Hermione looked back to Severus who was once again in the shadows, and finally understood why he had brought her to Lucius and Narcissa at the end of summer.

 **A/N: I really hoped you guys liked this chapter! XOXO**

 **1\. 7. 18**


	7. 2nd Year Part Three

**Chapter 7**

 **A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! I love you all and would thank you all individually but I just don't have that much time. This will be the last chapter for 2nd year so I hope y'all like it!**

 **Enjoy!**

 _"She shields and protects him. He watches over her. She would do anything for him. Their loyalty is steadfast."_

Hermione had given Mr. Filch one of her signature Hermione Hugs she had usually reserved for Severus the first time she had seen him sweeping the halls dejectedly on her way into the dungeons. Although he had been told Mrs. Norris would be cured within a few weeks once Severus had made the Mandrake Restorative Draught, he still would look run down and haggard each time she saw him. The day after the incident, Hermione went down to Severus' office to see him brewing the draught. When she came in the door, he said hello and said nothing else as Hermione propped herself up on the stool in front of him and did her best to mimic one of his stare downs that could make anyone flee in fear for a good five minutes before she gave up.

"Do these messages have anything to do with the book Lucius put into Ginny's cauldron when we were in Flourish and Blotts?" she had never been one to beat around the bush when asking Severus questions, knowing it would get her nowhere.

"Do you know what the Chamber of Secrets is, girl?" he asked her in place of his answer, once again giving her the answer she sought in place of a question.

 _A question unanswered is an answer given,_ he had told her once.

"No," she said, having poured over every book in the library since the message had been written and had gotten nowhere.

"Do you remember the story I told you about the other night about Salazar?" She nodded. "He had built the Chamber when him and the three other founders had first built the school, and housed a beast inside of it to protect it's home from those who would seek to hurt it. A Basilisk. Even if his intentions were noble, they were not seen as entirely good by his brother and sisters, and was exiled to the Old World countries." He put down the pen he had been twirling through his fingers, and leaned back in his tall backed chair. "The Chamber can only been open by a Parselmouth, a serpent speaker."

Hermione felt like time a frozen around her for a moment, "Harry's been hearing a voice. He heard a voice before we found Mrs. Norris, and earlier this year." Her tongue felt like it was fused to the roof of her mouth, but then confusion made her brow wrinkle. "How do you know all of this, Severus?"

His fingers smoothed her forehead and pulled her into his lap to wrap his arms around her, "The Dark Lord is the heir Hermione, and yes, Lucius did give Ginny a book in the summer. He was given orders to give it to a school year Pureblood if he had ever had a doubt as to if the Dark Lord was in danger of being killed, and he contacted him through the pages."

"But isn't that a good thing?" she looked up to his dark eyes, running her fingers over his afternoon stubble along his jawline. "You would be free to do what you really want."

"And what is it I want girl?"

"To live. To own your own life instead of having someone decide it for you."

~.O.~

Hermione's head was even more crammed with information than it usually was, and she didn't know if her having all the knowledge was a good idea for a thirteen year old, but Severus had entrusted her with it seemingly thinking she could handle it and she would try her best. And most likely knowing she would need it in the future. Her parents had always called her a child genius. The conversation with Severus had sparked something inside Hermione, and she didn't know what it was just yet; she knew though, the plan forming inside her head was not a particularly safe one. She had to do everything she could to help Severus though, and fate seemed to agree with her as she had found what she had been looking for in Moaning Myrtle's flooded bathroom one day several weeks after talking to the man in question.

Hermione sat on her red covered bed, debating on rather or not writing in _Tom Marvolo Riddle's_ book was the best idea in the world.

 _Severus will be so angry when I tell him_ , part of her brain said as she bit her lip. But the other said, _it's to protect him, for at least a little while. He will understand…_

 _I hope._

She had always been too smart for her own good, and writing in the leather bound book would only confirm the Sorting Hat's decision to put her in Gryffindor.

Putting her wet quill to the old parchment, she wrote.

"Hello, Tom."

Not a minute later, words in fluid script appeared beneath her own loopy one…

 _Hello, Ginerva. I was beginning to think you had forgotten me._

"My name is Hermione."

This time, his response was not so fast coming,

 _Hello, Hermione. How have you come to find my diary?_

"I found it drowning in water. It seems as if Ginny didn't want it anymore."

The book seemed to pulse with a heat coming from the pages after her statement.

 _You don't seem to be surprised to see a book is talking to you._

"I know who you are."

 _Who am I?_

"The Dark Lord." Hermione's heart was beating out of her chest at his response.

Finally, after a very long pause that could have been a minute, or an hour, he replied.

 _You are a clever girl. Would you like to speak face- to- face, Hermione?_

"Yes, I would."

With those words there was a quick flash of bright light coming from where her hands held the book as the ink blended into the page, and suddenly she was standing on the edge of a cliff facing a raging sea of water in a grey world.

"Hello, Hermione," a smooth voice said behind her.

Turning, she saw a boy about a few years older than her in a black suit and tie, his wavy hair making him resemble more a model on a magazine cover than a sixteen year old. "Hello, Tom." She could hear children somewhere down the rocky hill they stood on. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around at the caves surrounding them made of uneven and weathered rock.

"A beach I used to come to as a boy," he replied, circling her slowly as he talked, her doing the same to him in turn. "How do you claim to know me?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "From one of your devoted followers." His eyes flashed, "Will you remember our conversation once you are resurrected?"

His curiosity grew impossibly more in his eyes, although his face showed nothing by simple curiosity, "I will. Are you saying that you are here to help me?"

"Yes. Would you accept help from a little mudblood like me?"

His head cocked to the side, studying her, "Blood purity never mattered to me, although some of my followers do have a tendency to take it a bit far. Which of my Death Eaters have you been in contact? And why would I choose to accept help from a girl who could not be more than thirteen."

"When you are resurrected, may I have a boon?" she ignored his questions for now, noticing how his lips tightened in response, but then smoothed to a charming smile she didn't believe for a moment.

 _Someone doesn't like being ignored… but he is a curious thing. Much like me._

"I give you my word," he nodded his head, "You may have anything you want. I have a feeling you already have an idea of what you would like?"

Hermione laughed lightly, turning her head up into the wind that swirled around them. "I do. The Death Eater I am friends with is Severus, and you should accept my help because I hold your book, and I also am much smarter than my age would give the impression of."

"Ah," he was the one who now laughed, "I see that. He was a loyal one, my spy; and still is if you standing before me is not proof enough. Does he know you are here? I distinctly remember giving this book to Lucius, who then gave it to Miss. Weasley."

"Severus does not know I am here, he will be very displeased when he learned that I had talked to you without informing him first."

"You are extraordinarily intelligent for your age, girl." That was a very high compliment coming from him she knew, Severus had said he was a very hard man to please. "Now, tell me how do you plan on purging me from this book, then we may speak of the boon you seek?"

Hermione smiled at him, knowing she had gotten his interest but was not naive enough to think he trusted her. He would only know she was trustworthy when she proved her worth.

She took the arm he had offered, her plans were coming together very nicely indeed.

~.O.~

Until fate decided to kick her in the teeth in regards to Harry.

The boys had roped her into coming to the Duelling Club Severus had once talked about him being in his years at Hogwarts, and she wasn't impressed with Lockhart from the start. The teacher had not proved himself worthy of his official job yet, and Hermione doubted he ever would, so she immediately had reservations as he stepped up on the long runway in his plum robes.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club to train you all up in case you need to defend yourself," _against the beast roaming the halls_ was unsaid in the excited air of the open room.

 _Not like it would do any good._

"As myself have done on countless occasions- for full details see my entire published works..." he strutted about the dias he was raised on, flashing that pompous smile after every sentence he finished. "Let me introduce my assistant, Severus Snape," he said with yet another smile, his arm sweeping out to the fiercely scowling man who had his arms cross.

 _If I had that look fixed on me… I probably will once I tell him what I've done…_

Hermione sighed heavily, knowing that conversation is not going to be good.

Finally Lockhart finished his mini dialogue and got knocked off his feet by the Potions Master, ending his farce as he and Severus drew the students into pairs.

"Perhaps it would be best if you taught them how to block spells before getting them to curse at one another?" Severus had suggested with an eyebrow raised above it's normal position, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor insisted they were ready with a panicked look about his face that gave away his lack of knowledge in the area.

Hermione and Ron getting paired together, Harry and Draco were paired by the slightly triumphant man who Hermione gave a look that was ignored. Firing charms back and forth, only Hermione landed one on Ron, and beside them Harry and Draco were getting increasingly rougher with their spells until one put an end to their duel.

 _"Serpensortia!"_ Draco yelled, conjuring a long black snake that landed heavily between the two boys, the people closest to them gasping and backing away, causing the rest of the room to become curious. Soon they were all paying attention.

"Hermione!" Ron hissed to her, pulling her back from the two boys and the snake as she herself wasn't backing away. His hiss apparently wasn't said quietly enough as the snake turned his attention towards the curly haired girl and started slithering towards her; new, bigger hands pushed her behind his tall frame with his beechwood wand raised to the animal of his house to conjure it.

Suddenly, a louder hiss was heard throughout the room coming from Harry, and that was the end of his secret.

 _Oh, dear… here we go now._

~.O.~

 _"Everyone has kind of done something bad and everyone has shades of good, but everyone has that darkness. There's always that little twinkle of darkness in everyone's eye."_

 _-Emma Roberts_

"What were you thinking?" the exact expression was on Severus' face that she was afraid of. The one with the furrowed brows, his lips pinched tight as he threatens to break his teeth from the occasional grind. When he didn't even call her 'girl,' she knew he was even more upset than he seemed on the outside; to Hermione who could read him like a book after two years, he was pretty _furious_. She had finally told him about meeting with Tom and her plans, and suffice to say, he was reacting exactly as she suspected him to,

"You put yourself on his radar, and have made yourself a target."

Hermione sighed, "Severus, do you honestly think I wouldn't be a target anyway once he is resurrected? I'm the best friend of the boy who weakened him." He was severely displeased, even crossing his arms showing it would take much talking to calm him and hear her out.

"And how do you know he will be resurrected? How do you know you will be safe?"

"I know _we_ will be safe, for a while at least once he is back to full strength because we will help him get there. Lucius already set things in motion with Ginny and that book."

His arms uncrossed to pinch his nose, his right elbow resting on his uncovered forearm baring the Dark Mark, "You have condemned yourself to being in constant danger, how do you expect me to react, girl?"

She brought her bare feet up onto the sofa that she was sitting upon, grabbing Severus' shoulders to bring him closer, "I will have been in constant danger already, Sev. Only this way though, we can choose our own path, and I can keep you safe." She brought down his hands that then came around her waist to give her a hug, his hands grazing her long hair as hers wrapped around his neck and buried her face in his long hair.

He laughed, the tension finally seeping from his body, making Hermione relax as well although she knew he wouldn't stay mad at her for long.

 _Wait until we really start, Sev_. She thought, knowing they would be worried sick for one another once the Dark Lord was out in the open. She didn't think her boon with the Dark Lord would last for long.

"I'm the one who's supposed to keep you safe," he mumbled in her light curls, "You're too young to be taking care of yourself, let alone a grown man twice your age. Or making deals with murderous Dark Lords."

She chuckled, "I'm too young to be in the middle of a war, and yet here we are." They were quiet for a while, just holding onto each other knowing everything was going to change.

"Can I brew polyjuice in your lab?" He leaned back and gave her a look, Hermione only answering with a blinding smile.

~.O.~

Drinking the Polyjuice Potion wasn't very pleasant, and turning forms was even less. Hermione's insides writhed like they houses live snakes trying to burst out of her mouth, and then came the burning sensation that started at her fingertips to end at her toes; doubling over groaning, she heard her moans echoed by the boys in the cubicles beside her. Her muscles felt like they were trying to do their best to explode outside of her skin, and as she knelt down to all fours, she knew something was horribly wrong as skin gave way to soft fur.

"Hermione, are you coming?" Harry called from outside the cubicle, Hermione continued staring at her sharpened fingernails.

"No," she said, her voice a bit higher than normal, "Go without me."

"Are you alright?" He continued, insisting that she come out.

She opened the door angrily, the boys jumping back at her appearance, "You are wasting time! Go! I have to take care of this."

They ran out of the bathroom in the skins of Crabbe and Goyle as Hermione made her way stealthily to the dungeons, the reflexes she had grown making her quieter and easier to elude passing students and teachers.

Before leaving she turned on all of the sink taps, it's rushing water almost immediately flooding their small basins and running onto the floor. Pulling out the leather bound journal from her satchel she opened it to a random page and gently place it back where she had once found it drowning in the water.

 _And it begins…_

"You do know it's not supposed to be used for animal transformations right?" Severus asked her once he had given into his hysterical laughing, waving his wand over the sheet that covered her naked body. He insisted she didn't want him casting the spells to get rid of the unwanted hair while she still wore her clothes as it wouldn't dissolve once detached from her body.

She gave him a dirty look as the unwanted hair fell away onto the table, and sat up as he gave her one of his shirts that was more like a dress on her than a shirt. "I know that very well, Severus. As you can see. I didn't exactly expect her robes to have cat hair on them, did I?"

He chuckled once again, looking lighter and even more carefree than usual, laughing and letting go for a bit having done wonders for his physical image. He had looked ten years younger when he had his head thrown back, his hair tied at the nape of his neck after a long day of classes, and his deep baritone filling the room. He took hold of her chin, looking in her eyes, "Your pupils are still vertical, and your fingernails are still sharp. I doubt they will go away."

Hermione sighed, "At least the hair is gone." She smiled at him, "Thank you."

He tapped her jaw and looked at her canines, smirking a bit as he touched it lightly and his thumb came back with a drop of blood, "I doubt these will go away either."

She snapped at him, making him laugh more than she had ever heard from him in a day.

 _Cheeky man._

She had also developed heightened sight in the dark it seemed, and hearing as well as she heard footsteps coming from behind her as she turned a corner in the cold dungeons. Acting like she didn't hear them, she heard the boy, identified by the heavier footed gait, and came to the top of a small flight of stairs before the boy grabbed her by her hair and pushed her into the stone wall she had been walking beside. Gasping to catch her breath as he had knocked the wind out of her, she looked up into the unattractive face of Marcus Flint.

"What do you want?" she cowered, not at all wanting him to see he scared her with his much larger and intimidating stature. "Do you make it a habit of following around second years around the dungeons?" She felt the stone scraping the backs of her legs from where Severus' altered shirt ended.

He yanks her forward only to push her back roughly against the stone once more with his hand on her throat, causing her head to knock into the hard rock behind her, "Shut up, Mudblood!" he whispered, knowing voice's travel in these echoey halls.

She gritted her teeth as she felt something rise inside her and cause her body to warm up from head to toe. She dug her newly sharpened nails into his cheek, slashing it on his left as he yelled and backed away from her.

"You, bitch!"

"You shouldn't pick on people who you don't know, Marcus." She said as she backed him up until he was on the edge of the staircase and seemingly not noticing it.

"You're just a filthy little Mudblood!"

She gave him a little frown, making her look her young age, "That's a very rude word. You should stop using it."

And then she pushed him down the stone steps just as arms came around her waist to pull her back.

"Girl," Severus was in front of her now, blocking her view of the now unconscious boy silently lying one the cold floor, his arm at an unnatural angle, and gouges on his cheek. "What did you do? Were you trying to kill him?"

She looked at him with unapologetic eyes, not knowing what the emotion that was swirling in his black ones. She pushed aside the hair that had fallen in his face, "No, he was being mean, Severus."

He only stared at her for a moment before Flint started moaning where he lie, "Go back to your dorm girl," he told her, kissing her forehead as she nodded; knowing he would make sure the mean boy didn't talk.

As Severus levitated the stationary boy, he looked back to the small girl that was just rounding the corner on her way back to Gryffindor tower, no doubt to check on the boys she insisted on calling her friends. She had the same look he had had many times before, the uncaring one that often came with doing something to someone he had disliked highly. They were more alike than he had previously thought on account of the darker side of themselves, but unlike himself, who had no one to pull him back and keep him from making mistakes and indulging in that particular side of himself, she had him. And he would not allow her to lose her innocence in place of her more primal instincts.

"What happened?! Was it another attack?" Madame Pomfrey came bustling towards him as her wards signaled her.

"He fell," Severus said distractedly, "Down the stairs."

~.O.~

Leaving the diary was a risky move, anyone could have found it before Harry and Ron got back to the bathroom, but it was worth it as Harry was the one to get it and write to Tom. There had been more attacks on the muggleborns, on Colin Creevey and Justin Finch Fletchley, but even though Hermione knew she wasn't in danger of being petrified she wasn't taking any chances. Severus had been quieter than usual when she had visited him after he had seen her push Marcus down the stairs, he had just sat as his desk staring at her as she worked, only saying something when when she finally put her quill down beside the drying ink.

"Severus," she asked patiently, suspecting what he had wanted to talk about.

His hand came down from where his thumb had been resting on his lips as his other fingers rested under his chin, putting his own quill down. "How did it make you feel?"

She sighed, looking down and twisting her fingers as she got up and went around his desk to lean against it beside his chair, "It didn't make me feel anything."

His fingers pried her's apart and twisted his own around them, "Girl," his stern voice cut through her recollection, and she knew he knew she wasn't telling the truth as he usually used that voice meant _cut it out, I won't judge you._

Her chin raised and she looked him in the eyes, "It felt good, Severus." Hermione felt emotion well up in her throat, "It scared me. Am I a bad person, Severus? For feeling that way?" she had asked him.

He grabbed her up and put her on his lap to wrap himself around her, knowing she liked it when he did that as if made her feel safe, "No, girl. Out of the two of us, I'm the bad person. And that's putting it lightly." She felt so tiny.

She chuckled into his chest, settling her arms around his waist, "You're not a bad person, Severus. If you were, you wouldn't love me."

He only held her tighter.

~.O.~

Harry lay in front of her on the hospital bed, looking small surrounded by the layers of the white sheets after his ordeal with the Basilisk. He had talked to Tom and had been shown his memory of Hagrid, but of course he didn't believe him and had gone off on his and Ron's mission of finding the Chamber of Secrets without her; claiming it was safer for her to be kept away from the, quote _'muggleborn hating beast'_ unquote. While their intentions were good, it made her mad as hell as they disappeared into the girl's' bathroom the night Ginny was taken by Tom; holding a cowardly Lockhart at wand-point. Harry had killed the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor and saved Ginny, almost killing himself in the process with it's poisonous venom before Professor Dumbledore's familiar healed him with his tears.

The stupid.

Lucius had been called back into the headmaster's office once Dumbledore, who he had suspended once the attacks had continued, and Harry had accused him of putting the book in Ginny's cauldron at Flourish and Blotts. He had walked away without his House- Elf Dobby that Harry had made friends with in the end after Harry's Slytherin- like sneakiness in putting a sock into the book that had once contained the little piece of Tom. After Madame Pomfrey had heard of Harry's little ordeal she whisked him off to the Hospital Wing where he now lay in front of her, Dreamless Sleep circulating through his system.

"Why do you insist on ending the year in the hospital every year?" Hermione asked his sleeping form, Ron lay next to him under the same influence as his arm had been hit by a boulder when he and Harry had gotten separated, and Lockhart next to Ron due to an Obliviation Charm backfiring.

"Because he is a dunderhead," Severus said, seemingly melting out of the castle walls as if he had been a part of them. "And trouble seems to follow you three no matter where you go, I swear you want it to find you after how much you go seeking it out."

Hermione chuckled lightly, pushing some of Harry's messy hair off his forehead and reaching up to where Severus' hand dangled right above her head to twine her little fingers with his big ones. "They do. I try to be the voice of reason and make the danger less."

The were quiet for a long while, Hermione watching Harry breathing, Severus watching his girl before he spoke, "You're in it now, girl."

She wasn't smiling now, "I know. But you've been in it for much longer."

~.O.~

 _Malfoy Manor_

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy stood hovering over the cold white veined body of a young man with dark hair and blue eyes when he awoke.

"Why are we doing this, Lucius?" Narcissa whispered to her husband in the large quiet room as they stood vigil over the body.

"You know why Cissy," he told his frightened wife, pulling an arm round her shoulders. They didn't think the Dark Lord's rise would come again this soon, especially not in their home where they raised their only son. Severus had told them to have a body that had died of natural causes and was young in age, saying that they would have an instrumental part in his rise once again in order to defeat him and protect themselves and their son. He would say no more than that, he was surprisingly close- mouthed about the whole ordeal, but they had suspected it had something to do with the clever little girl he and Draco had taken a shine too.

"What did we get ourselves into?" she whispered into his chest, not expecting an answer and trying to hold her emotions back.

"Mum? Father?" Draco came into the room holding the hand of their new little house elf.

"Draco," Narcissa held her hand out to him, kneeling down to hug him as her husband put a hand on her shoulder in support.

"What's wrong?" Draco wiped away a tear that had escaped his mother's watery eyes, scared and confused he didn't know why a black robed man was lying in the middle of the room utop an oaken table.

"We need you to be strong, my boy," Narcissa smooth back her son's hair so much like his father's, "The Dark Lord will be resurrected soon, and we need you to show no weakness in front of him. We will have his followers in our house again, and you need to show that you support and follow their views. But keep everything we have taught you in your heart. Do you understand me, Draco?"

He still looked scared, but he looked up to his father who nodded and copied his wife's actions, "I understand, Mother." His parents had told him of the dark times that had come along with the Dark Lord and what they had had to do, what he would be expected to do. He knew he wouldn't be able to be seen as being friendly with Hermione anymore, but he would do what he was expected by his family to protect them.

The three blondes continued to stand vigil over the young man, until his body spasmed as if an electric shock had gone through it.

Draco jumped.

He was still for a moment, only broken by the twitch over his fingers, down to his leg, and then the rising of his chest as it then continued to take a deep gasp of air.

"My Lord," Draco's parents knelt as the man regained enough strength to stand and explore his new body with his sharpened fingernails. "Welcome back."

The new body of Dark Lord that differed so much from his previous snake like one leveled them with a once blue eyed, now red, stare, hissing, _"Get me Severus."_

 **A/N: Thanks for reading guys! So… I didn't exactly know how I was going about Hermione in this story at the beginning and this is what I came up with. This isn't going to be a completely innocent or completely dark Hermione story, there are going to kind of be equal instances and I'll try to balance them out as the story goes on. I was a bit on the fence about writing parts of this year because it kind of veers off in a slightly different direction with Hermione's personality. Up until she has been the perfectly innocent thirteen year old girl, but this chapter shows a different side to her that was necessary to be shown early on and will be a bit more important in later chapter. Reviews please, I look forward to how you think about 'Mione now and if you still love her (and me XD) after what we've done!**

 **Tell me what y'all think.**

 **XOXO**

 **1\. 21. 18**


	8. 3rd Year Part One

**Part 3: Chapter 8**

 **A/N: I probably have already told y'all that this will be a romantic Hermione/ Severus story? If I did, great, if I didn't or you forgot here's the warning. This year they will grow closer and start seeing each other more in a different light than they previously have, and they will probably start the 'romantic' part in 4th year so Hermione won't be so young after the Time Turner and her birthdays.**

 **Hope y'all like this year!**

" _Because of you I laugh a little harder, cry a little less, and smile a lot more."_

Hermione's summer was uneventful to say the least. It was an ordinary muggle vacation in the south of France with her parents, and barely any Severus. Though Hermione was surprised when Professor McGonagall had shown up with a golden hourglass in hand. One of the last Time Turners had been entrusted to Dumbledore years ago, and he then entrusted it to her in aid of her studies and Harry. Being friends with the Boy- Who- Lived was an interesting life to say the least that came with a few quirks, and Hermione suspected they would be giving her classes that would be beneficial to Harry in the future. Under strict instructions to use it for classes and classwork only, having given it to her a few weeks in advance to the first day of school in order to adjust and get used to writing down her everyday actions in a journal that had endless pages Severus had gifted her

Severus had explained to her once her second year at Hogwarts had ended, they would be spending a significantly less amount of time together seeing as Voldemort had sent for him; ordering him to spy once again on the Order and Dumbledore while he bided his time until he was strong enough once again. The Dark Lord would not allow her to serve him just yet. Not until he was sure that his little helper was not being followed and silently protected by a member of the Light after the Voldemort related happenings of the last two years. Which, as it so happend, Severus had glanced on more than one occasion a witch or wizard following the two of them as he took her through a muggle mall on one of their outings.

If Severus had told anyone else of this development, they would only have had seen his mask of indifference and nothing else, but Hermione could see he was afraid to go back to his dark master. Although he had spent a few days with the Grangers' at the beginning of the break, Hermione had only seen him for a few hours at a time in between his duties, and Mr. and Mrs. Granger could see it affecting their usually energetic daughter when she would sink into bouts of silence for hours at a time even when she would try to hide it. Hermione hadn't told her parents about Voldemort just yet, not wanting to alarm them about their daughter going into a dangerous world, and Severus supported her decision even if he didn't accept it.

They loved their daughter to death, and they loved spending time with her during her months off of school as she had been staying for holidays to be with the new man in her life, but they were glad when he had picked her up a few weeks before school to take her to spend some time with their girl.

She didn't know he had been coming to pick her up, having told her parents he wanted to surprise her to make up the lost time together. Her eyes had lit up as they always did when he showed up and pounced her little body into his arms, "Sev!"

He chuckled, his weary face that seemed to have aged ten years with his sleepless nights breaking into his quirk of the lips smile that melted it all away. "Hello, girl." He bounced her up from where her legs and arms twined around him like a monkey, "Are you ever going to grow?" He asked, she hadn't grown much from her eleven year old body, only shooting up a few inches to where she came up to the middle of his upper arm in her thirteen year old form and was still light as a feather.

She leaned back, a big smile on her face, "Nope. What are you doing here?"

"You're coming with me," he said putting her on the ground, "To Spinner's End."

She looked at him confused, but said okay. Turning to her now relieved parents she squeezed them and grabbed her trunk.

Hermione looked around the house Severus had grown up in, and sneezed. Dust seemed to penetrate the dark walls of the small house Cokeworth, and she was very surprised that a man as organized as him would allow it to get this way. The only seemingly clean thing in the house was the bookshelves lining every wall she could see.

"Severus?" she looked at his abashed face, "What in the world…?"

"I haven't been here in a few years," he defended, walking towards the stairs. "Your room is up here."

The bedroom was just across from his own, the room used to be his parents but Hermione had noticed there was nothing personal in the whole house.

"Why did you bring me here, Severus?" Hermione peered out of the dirty window, Severus had cleaned up their two rooms, but things still had the musty smell of having not been used for almost a decade.

"You need to know where it is, if anything happens to me and you need somewhere to stay." He put his intentions bluntly, "It is warded and no one can enter unless either myself, or now you, allow them." He hadn't looked at her during his explanation, and Hermione felt like crying at the thought of something happening to him.

He waved his wand to enact a cleaning charm around the room but Hermione preferred to clean manually after using it to get the smell and dirt out of the room, and she now gave herself a new project to make his home as homey as her own. Seeing as he won't do it himself, and make new memories in it to drive out the bad ones he had from his childhood.

"C'mon," she said, grabbing his wand out of his hand wrapping her's around it, "We are going to clean your house, and make it livable."

"It's perfectly livable, girl. It just has a bit of dust. Everywhere."

She stopped and gave me a deadpan look, "Severus, this..." she waved her finger in a circle in the air, "... is not just a little dust. This is dust that spawns little baby dust, and the baby dust grow up to do the same until your house is nothing but a dust pile. We..." she went to big windows in front of the house, and opened the curtains, waving a hand to get rid of the dust by her face, "... or _I_ am going to put some light into this house."

Severus only watched as the bossy little girl so different from anyone he had ever met bustled around the house that his parents had made unbearable to live in.

It took a few days of working in her old ripped dungarees and converse with Severus' wand before Hermione got everything in the house the way she liked. Whenever Hermione picked up Severus' wand, it felt familiar. Normally a witch and wizard using each other's wands was a taboo thing, but Severus had never seemed to have a problem with letting her use his, as her's would still have the Trace on it until she was seventeen. She could feel the power coursing through the slim dark wood not unlike her's. It was just a peculiar feeling holding another's wand she knew, but not Severus,' maybe it was because their magic was in sync? She chose not to think too much on it as she waved around Severus' who only got ready for the new school year. Though she couldn't for the life of her understand how he had papers to fill out if the year hadn't started yet.

In those few days though, she watched, and listened the man she had been cohabitating with. He seemed quieter than normal, and she knew it had to do with the Dark Lord and his coming to terms with his revisiting his old occupation as spy. She didn't pry knowing he would talk to her when he was ready, and if he chose not to, that was okay too. She would be there when he needed someone to listen. She could tell he wasn't accustomed to living with someone as he frequently jumped when she entered the room on her quiet feet she had gained in her brief stint as a human cat during the Polyjuice accident, he often left the door open when he was dressing or undressing and was in the bathroom they shared. He had no fat on his body, but in his case it looked as if he hadn't eaten in awhile. She had been passing his room one day when he had been in the process of putting on his shirt, and she could see his skin close on his ribs, the paler than normal skin stretched over his usually muscular chest. That day she had taken to cooking their meals to try and get him to how he was used to.

She became even more worried when she had started hearing his nightmares and seeing the dark circles underneath his eyes the morning after. She had taken to leaving her door open when she slept as he did with his own when she heard his moans for the first time. Becoming increasingly worse as the days grew, she couldn't take it anymore and went across the cold hall to find him clutching at the sheets around him as if they were the only thing keeping him for losing it completely and screaming at the top of his lungs. He probably would be at this point if he wasn't a naturally restrained man.

"Severus," Hermione was hesitant to wake him up, knowing if you woke someone from a nightmare it could be potentially dangerous to either person. "Severus," she shook him gently by his bare shoulders, stroking his cheek as if to wake him as gently as possible.

Her worries were right as he woke gasping, a hand gripping her throat, he had pulled her down next to him on the opposite side of where he was sleeping.

"Hermione," he gasped coming back to himself, once he saw what he was doing in the pale moonlight slipping through his dark curtains, he sat up from where he had been on his elbow hovering about her. His feet planted themselves on his side of the bed as if to run away from her, and his tense back was all she could see, that and the bowed back of his black head.

Hermione looked at him stunned for a moment, but not for the reason of his actions, but more of his words. He had said her name. He had never said her name before, these whole three years they had grown closer, the only thing he had called her was 'girl,' or 'Miss. Granger.' Tears pricked at her eyes, but she couldn't allow herself to get emotional while he seemed distressed.

"Severus," she said softly, putting her little hand on his spine in the middle of his back. "Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry," his voice was deep with sleep and his whimpering from the nightmare. He still wouldn't turn towards her.

She got up to her knees on the bed and shuffled closer towards him, stopping beside him but just behind, she waited for him to turn to her on his own time. "It's alright." She rubbed his spine as she could feel it getting less tense.

Finally, he rubbed his big hands down his face, his elbows on his thighs as he looked up to the concerned girl. Just staring.

"Lay back down," she told him, waiting until he stiffly laid back to pull his head onto her belly and scrape her fingers down his scalp, making him shiver. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He was quiet for awhile, and Hermione patiently waited until he sighed and untensed. "Did you know I went to school with Potter's parents?" His voice was low and quiet, an undertone hiding below his words.

She stared up at the ceiling, continuing to comb her fingers through his silky hair that frequently looked greasy rather than shiny. "I thought you did, I hadn't really given it much thought before."

"The house where you grew up is supposed to have happy memories in it, my parents weren't like your's, girl." he said, and then he was quiet for a while, as if he was contemplating on what to say next. "Do you remember the girl I had told you about? The one that I had became friends with before I went to Hogwarts our first year?" She nodded. "Lily was the reason I switched sides and saw the Dark Lord for who he truly is."

Her fingers stopped as an unfamiliar emotion welled up in her chest, making it a bit hard to breathe as she listened to him talk about his time in school and his tormentors.

 _He loved her…_

"Do you still love her?" She kind of didn't want to know.

She felt his face turn up towards her own on her stomach and he took her free hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist. "If I look back on our real action ship, she didn't deserve the love I gave her in the first place. She took me for granted, and when I made one mistake in the heat of the moment, she tossed me aside. So, no. I haven't loved her for a long time."

"I'll never take you for granted, Severus.." She felt like crying again, and fought not to have her chin wobble as she turned her head into the opposite side of the pillow from his face.

He turned her face down to him and pressed a kiss to the underside of her jaw, "I love you too, Hermione."

 _Why does he make me feel like this?_

~.O.~

" _But the most beautiful things in life are not things. They're people, and places, and memories, and pictures. They're feelings and moments and smiles and laughter."_

Hermione stared at Severus. And stared. And stared. And licked her ice cream cone

"Girl," Severus said, not looking up and continuing to write on his parchment about what seemingly looked like potions ingredients. "What are you doing?"

She said nothing as she walked up to his desk and plopped right beside his papers, staring at his head and waiting for him to look up. Swinging her legs and licking her chocolate ice cream. He put his quill down, grabbing her knee to stop the swinging.

"Girl."

"What are you working on?" she asked, picking up a paper and scanning it, but it all looked like jumbles of words combined.

He took it back and placed it upon the stacks that grew everyday, and looked to be getting even more frustrated as he cooped himself up in the basement with his cauldrons. "A potion for the Dark Lord, for his human body."

She grabbed his hand, "If you teach me more about them I could help."

He tugged on a curl, "Thank you." He paused as if was about to say something and then opened his mouth again, "He has _requested_ that you keep a close relationship with Potter so that when he ultimately does get his permanent body, you will report them to him of his and Dumbledore's plan that the Headmaster might not tell me."

She looked at his stressed frame a moment, and nodded, knowing he didn't even want her _thinking_ about the Dark Lord.

Now it was depressing, thoughts weighing down their minds.

"I want to go to Diagon Alley."

"I live to serve," he bowed mockingly towards her, grunting when she pushed her little toes into his gut.

Then he took her ice cream and bit the curl off, walking upstairs to change from the jeans and t- shirt he had taken to wearing when they were alone.

"Hey!" Hermione complained, following his laughing.

As soon as Hermione and Severus entered The Magical Menagerie, they were overwhelmed by the noise. There were birds squawking, owls hooting, toads croaking, and cats hissing. Hermione had decided it was time to find a pet, or try and find a familiar as she now knew the castle well enough and she would feel less lonely when she couldn't be with her friends or Severus for one reason or another. She wanted a soft fluffy cat that would love her as much as she could love it, and liked Severus of course. She silently browsed the hissing cats in the cages and felt sorry for them, knowing they must not have liked being all cooped up like that.

All of a sudden a purring orange fluffy ball landed into her arms, coming from one of the cages stacked up to the ceiling.

"Aww!" Hermione cooed at the squished face of the slightly tiger looking tomcat, "Look, Severus! Isn't he adorable?" She bumped her head to the Kneazle, knowing immediately that this was the cat she wanted to take home. Her decision only solidified when the cat purred louder when Severus ran a line down the creature's back.

As they went to check out, the witch behind the counter gaped at the small girl, wondering how she could have tamed such a horror as the frisky cat.

"Who's that, Severus?" Hermione asked as they sat at Florean Fortescue's, waiting for Severus' replacement of the ice cream he had taken from Hermione that morning. Crookshanks lay curled contentedly in Hermione's lap, blinking lazily up at her as she stroked his head.

Severus looked to where she had pointed at the black and white poster of screaming escapee Sirius Black, and scowled so hard she was afraid he would strain his eyebrows.

"Someone who was friends with Potter," he said. Seeing his look, she didn't believe for one minute that was the end of the story. "From the beginning of school, Black had been a bully. He only became worse when Potter started taking an interest in Lily." He was quiet for awhile as Hermione's ice cream was brought to her. "He was made out to be the one to have been the one to betray the Potters' location, and killing a group of muggles while trying to kill a friend that had been a part of their group. Peter Pettigrew." He sneered, "A disgusting little rat. He was the one who had in truth betrayed their location to the Dark Lord."

Hermione didn't know how to make sense of that, only getting that Pettigrew was the reason Harry now had no parents. "How did he get out of Azkaban? It's guarded by dementors."

"Dementors have been fooled before, girl," he said cryptically, "He is an animagus. As was Pettigrew and their little group of Marauders they called themselves."

Hermione cocked her head to the side, there seemed to be something hiding behind his eyes. "How do you know this Severus?"

He got a glint in his eye, "One of their friends, Lupin is a werewolf, and they took it upon themselves to become animagi to keep him company during the full moon."

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth, Crookshanks butting her stomach to get her to start petting him again. "Oh, Merlin."

The glint turned mischievous, "I then, in my teenage angst to get back at them and bust them for breaking the rules, I myself studied to be one."

Hermione begged and begged him to show her his animagus form all the way back to his home, and eventually compromised to learn the Patronus charm to see his animal form. He had told her of the dementors making an appearance at Hogwarts as the Ministry suspected Black would come looking for Harry, his godson.

The Patronus charm was not something you could study, but it was pretty straightforward. She learned it over the span of a week, Crookshanks who had been happily laying on her feet at the time jumped up to run in circles with the misty little arctic fox. She hadn't focused on an exact memory, more like the feeling of her parent's, Severus,' and her new familiar's loving vibes.

Severus was beautiful. He was a beautiful, slick, black panther that had fur like velvet and shone with a navy sheen when the light hit him just right, just like his hair. A tall mass of lean muscle, he came up slightly higher than Hermione's hip when he stood.

"Oh," Hermione breathed when she had watched him shift the for the first time, sliding her hand along his back as she circled him. He purred loudly, head butting her stomach, and she knelt to her knees and pressed her head to his large one, looking him in the human eyes he had kept between forms. "You're beautiful, Severus." She thought for a moment, examining how comfortable he looked in his skin. As an idea popped into her head, a smile lightening her face when Severus saw and he licked her with his raspy tongue.

~.O.~

Hermione got to the train early when barely any people where in the station yet so no one would see her hug Severus goodbye. It seemed like a ghost train as she walked through the halls to their usual compartment, through the years having already staked a claim to each after their years boarding it. She hadn't expected anyone to be in the Slytherin compartment yet as she walked through, but there was a certain pale blonde boy staring out the window to the people milling about outside.

"Hello, Draco," Hermione said as she slid onto the green padded seat. He said nothing for awhile, Hermione watching him silently as Crookshanks twined around her legs.

Finally he turned towards her, and Hermione could see dark circles underneath his eyes, his cheeks looking gaunt as if he had lost so much weight since she last saw him.

 _Oh, Honey… He looks like Severus._

"Did you know?" he asked, his voice thick with fatigue and crossed arms that looked to be shivering in the warm compartment.

Hermione sighed, knowing what he was talking about. "I did."

"How?"

"We helped."

His brows furrowed, anger making it's presence known along his attractive face, " _We?_ " He scoffed, "Uncle Severus. Of course." He lapsed into silence again, "Why?"

Hermione chose her words carefully, knowing the Dark Lord had the ability to sift through minds, though it wasn't entirely probable he had the strength to do it, "You have to understand Draco, we have to do everything in our power to protect the people we care about."

"I care about my parents!" He burst out, cheeks flushing as he leaped up out of his seat, "And now the Dark Lord is living in my house, and they are scared, and even though he is still weak he is still there. All the time, watching, and waiting."

Hermione got up as he finally broke down, tears streaming down his face. Normally she would be disgusted when a man cried, thinking it was a sign of weakness, but there were certain instances that were an acception. She grabbed ahold of his shoulders and hugged his head as he sat back on the edge and sobbed into her stomach, hands clutching the back of her dark robes as Crooks rubbed his body along their pants.

When he settled down, he looked down to the Kneazle's squashed orange face and got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Isn't that the demon cat that always tries to scalp people?"

The compartment was filled with Hermione's surprised laughter and Draco's chuckles, the subject of discussion leaping onto the table and swatting playfully at Draco's face and headbutted his Mistress.

"It makes sense, Harry," Hermione told the boy as the three of them got to the compartment to see a man sitting fast asleep against the window. The Hogwarts Express was normally for students, and it was odd seeing the adult in his shabby set of wizarding robes that had been patched in several places. Hermione saw grey in his hair that was unusual for a man that looked as young as he did, and when Hermione got the smell of musty fur from him she knew that this was Remus Lupin even before she saw his bag laying on the rack above Harry who sat beside him. Severus had gotten a twisted look about his face when he had told her of Dumbledore offering him a job, knowing full well he would accept as he had to disclose his condition of being a werewolf.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed, sitting next to her and putting Scabbers on his lap.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," Hermione told him, examining him as she sat across him.

"How is it you know everything?" Ron asked her, seemingly exasperated with her already.

She gave him a pointed look, gesturing up to the rack, "It's on his case, Ronald." She turned to Harry who was looking at her lap, where Crooks sat rigidly, "Crookshanks!" She scolded, turning him to the window from where he was looking at Ron's squeaking rat like he was his next meal.

"Keep that bloody thing away from Scabbers!" Ron told her, scowling blackley, putting the ugly patchy thing back into his shirt pocket.

"Don't be mean, Ron," she sneered at him as he patted the lump.

Harry only looked at them amused but distracted, and Hermione remembered he had a lot on his mind having heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley talking about how Sirius Black wanted to kill him.

 _Honestly, the tact of some people._

They were just talking about Hogsmeade when suddenly the train started slowing. Crookshanks sat up spitting, looking to the window then to the hallways as if not knowing which way to look. Harry got up to look outside as the lamps blew out and it came to a stop.

Hermione smelled death as the air grew frosty around them.

She could see Ron getting up and feeling his way to the window, moving her foot in time to keep him from stepping on it.

"Somethings moving out there," he whispered.

Hermione knew what is was as the smell got closer, and she felt a stab go through her, not wanting to get close to one of those things.

She saw two shapes outside the compartment, and despite knowing they couldn't be Dementors she cast her charm.

" _Expecto Patronum!"_ She whispered, her little energetic arctic fox that bounded around in a little circle dimly illuminated the room as if the moon was shining in. The now open door showed Ginny and Neville.

"Do you know what's going on?" Ginny whispered as well, as if talking louder would bring something upon them they didn't want. They squeezed into the seats beside Hermione and Harry.

"No," Harry said, looking questioningly to Hermione who only shook her head and stood up.

"Your patronus is cute, Hermione," Ginny told her smiling slightly.

"Thanks, Gin," Hermione said, concentrating on the decay that seemed to be getting closer as she heard a rustle from Lupin who now was awake and standing as well, looking at Hermione then back to the fox that had it's nose twitching up in the air.

"Stay where you are," he said in a hoarse voice, making to leave but the door slowly slid open before he could get to it.

Hermione had just enough time to see a tall cloaked figure that went up to the ceiling, it's grey decayed hand reaching out before her fox bared it's teeth slightly before lighting up like the sun and lunging towards the Dementor; joined by her new professor's wolf as others showed up in the hallway.

Hermione felt drained as she sat down, everyone staring at her once again before Ginny cried out, " _Harry!"_

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Tell me what y'all think! XOXO**

 **2\. 12. 18**


	9. 3rd Year Part Two

**Chapter 9**

 **A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while guys! I've been trying to finish fourth year before I ended third year, but I don't think that's going to happen *feeling sheepish* but I figured I made y'all wait long enough for this one!**

 **Hope y'all enjoy!**

" _Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak."_

 _-Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati_

"Where did you learn to do a patronus, Hermione?" Professor Lupin asked as they got ready to exit the train. After Harry had woken back up it was silent in the train car after he had heard a screaming no one else had heard it, and Hermione suspected it was from when he was a baby. The others had gone ahead of her as she grabbed up Crookshanks to coax him into the wicker basket he hated, cooing at the grumpy cat that would forgive her once she let him out when they got to the castle so he could explore. "You don't mind that I call you Hermione do you?"

She looked up to him as she gently pushed her familiar into the basket, "No."

 _She kind of did, Severus is the only professor allowed to call her by her name._

"A professor taught me," she said.

He sounded curious when he asked, "Which professor would teach you a newt level charm to a third year?"

She looked up to see his reaction, "Professor Snape."

She left him with a bewildered look about his scarred face, wondering if she should have told him that.

 _Oh, well._

~.O.~

Hermione snuck down to the dungeons after the feast under cover of night, as she had done the previous year, and would keep doing until he asked her to stop.

"Severus, have you seen-" Hermione stops in the doorway to his living room, and blinks.

Severus is laying on his couch, reading a book over her familiar. Her familiar that was laying on Severus' chest. He puts the book down next to him on the floor, raising an eyebrow as he pointedly strokes Crooks along the spine, making his bottle-brush tail raise up as his big paws make biscuits on Severus' ribs.

She walks up to stand beside the two boys, hands on her hips, "Traitor," she tells the orange fluff ball who then looked up to her meowing, running his head along her stomach to her hip, batting at a large curl before he hopped down.

 _Watching his mistress being pulled down on top of the dark man, the large Kneazle knew he would protect the giggling girl from the evil rat man that smelled like garbage. He slinked off in search of tasty rats in the dark crevices of Hogwarts, licking his furry lips. He hoped to find the one her redheaded friend kept in his shirt._

Hermione Granger was a mystery to Remus Lupin. When Professor Dumbledore had asked his to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts position that was open more often than not, he was apprehensive due to his werewolf condition. He was by no means ashamed of being a werewolf, but the reactions and the recoil on some people's faces came to be a little too much sometimes. He had finally given in to the Headmaster's pleads when he had learned of Sirius' escape from Azkaban. It was the least he could do for Lily and James; look after their son, and apparently, his friends. Although it didn't look as if Miss. Granger needed much protecting from him, she must be a very bright witch to have mastered the Patronus Charm at the beginning of her third year. Something about the comment of Severus' teaching her itched his brain since she had said he was the one to take time out of his day to teach a student, and a Gryffindor at that. Something in her voice had hinted at some deeper emotion, and her eyes glittered the same way Sirius or James' did when they held a secret.

He had been on his way down to try and talk to Severus in his private chambers, seeing as he had leaned as far away from him as could be seen as non- suspicious to the students while they sat beside one another at the Great Table. He had never been talkative in their youth, and it seemed as if he was even more disinclined in his adulthood, but Remus had to try despite that he clearly still blamed him for not doing anything when James and Sirius played their 'pranks' on him. If his goal was to make him feel shamed, even after all these years, he achieved it.

Remus had never liked the dungeons, they always felt colder than normal on his skin that held more heat than humans. Starting down the hallway where Severus' door was located, it opened and spilled light into the dark as a small figure slinked to stand over the threshold with a tomcat at her heels, sliding his eyes to where he stood.

Remus hid himself in the cold shadows.

"Eat, Severus," Hermione told the tall man who looked like a lean, skinny, giant compared to her.

"Yes, Ma'am," he drawled at her.

She put her hands on his shoulders, "You don't eat yourself, I will send Crookshanks down here to paw at you until you do."

They looked down to where he meowed his assent at their feet, rubbing up on Severus' jeans.

To Remus' surprise, Severus laughed and picked the small girl up of her feet as she wiggled and laughed, her feet dangling.

"I will eat now, girl." She kissed his cheek and slid down, ready to leave but Crooks started going in circles around their feet, signaling they were being watched.

Their heads snapped right to where Remus stood at the same time, hidden partially by the rough wall. He fought to hold in his intake of breath as he saw Hermione's eyes that had been slitted like a cat's where the light hit them.

"Goodnight." Hermione told the man Remus had never seen smile at anyone but Lily, and that was so very long ago, who was now smiling at her and even kissed her on her cheek as she had done him. "C'mon, Crooks."

As her and her familiar passed him, Remus caught the scent of the same thing she had smelled of on the train, the scent he had not recognized until now. She smelled like herbs, and something deep and musky.

The same scent as how Severus had smelled like since their years at Hogwarts.

~.O.~

She was sorely disappointed with the Hogwarts Divination class. Hermione had always been interested in the subject, even if she didn't believe in it fully, but Professor Trelawney was an absolute looney in her predictions. Even if by some miracle she did predict something real, the cooking sherry Hermione smelled around her put them into doubt. She had predicted Harry would be in grave danger this year, but anyone could have said that who knew what had happened for the past two years.

 _Tea leaves…_ Hermione scoffed as she made her way outside with Crookshanks at her feet. And Hagrid, _oh Hagrid_ , the half- giant that would think a Chimera would be harmless. As their new Care of Magical Creatures professor, he was in complete control of the creatures they would learn about, and Hermione just knew they would only get more dangerous as she saw he had brought one of the temperamental Hippogriffs for the class to meet. Draco, in his usual suaveness, got himself scratched in his typical impatience and acting like he was dying. Which he was most definitely not by only gaining a new scar to mark his pale arm.

Professor Lupin inspired an emotion inside Hermione that was not unlike how she felt with Professor Trelawney, the dislike was there only because she knew what he had done to Severus, or not done, but overall he had seemed like a good enough teacher with his first lesson being the boggart. Though, Hermione had to marvel at Dumbledore's lack of thought into their Defense professors.

As she exited the castle into the cold Scotland air, she twitched her nose up into the air as her robes swirled around her moving legs and Crookshanks down the hill to the Whomping Willow. The tree had eventually recovered after the boys' ordeal with it and the car, but it remained twitchy with the students if they ventured a little too close. A little swat to the head and legs, and the student would go running back down the hill. But with animagi and animals, it was little more tolerant if you were nice and stroked it's trunk once in awhile.

Settling to the cool grass and leaning against the pretty sweet tree's knot, Hermione let her mind drift.

 _You clear your mind,_ Sev's voice sounded through her head as if he sat cross legged in front of her. _Let it drift off into nothingness, and let you float on your memories as if they were clear, as if you were looking through glass. Clear yourself of all emotion and let them fade away, locked away until you call them to the forefront of your mind. Focus on the things around you on the physical plane, not the mental one._

Hermione could feel the spongy feeling of the thick grass underneath her robes, the feeling of Crookshanks' weight on her legs, her fingers carded through his long fur. She could feel the chap of the wind on her exposed face and hands, could hear the rustle of the leaves and birds above her, smell dog somewhere where it must have passed a while ago, and taste the mandrake leaf under her tongue that had been there for just about a month.

Her mind was clear.

Severus had told her animagus meditations were almost the same as if one were practicing for Occlumency, the ability to clear one's mind, which she would learn next year as he wanted her mind protected when she eventually met the Dark Lord. And it just so happened that was what had also helped him become an animagus, so he had suggested she do the same in case she needed to wiggle into somewhere.

As her mind cleared, the mandrake had stimulated her psyche after weeks of soaking through her body, and she can feel herself running through the darkness of her mind. Can feel the wind swirling around her sliding through her fur as she gracefully leaps and jumps. And suddenly, she is doing it in a smaller body. The change from her human body to the same as her small patronus was effortless, like sliding into a silk dress, and feeling it's smooth fabric rub pleasantly over her skin.

She felt free.

She stalked Severus around the castle, the soft pads of her feet much like a cat's, not making so much as a rasp on the stone floor. He was in the teacher's common room behind the Great Hall when she found him, so she sat patiently in the shadows with Crookshanks. Waiting. She had a feeling he knew they were following him once he had started snapping around corners, making her feel like a cat chasing a tall mouse. He made her feel playful as she leaped and hopped towards his frequently disappearing cloak around corners, her snow white tail swaying behind her pouncing form.

Then she turned into the mouse as a black figure caught her her in his mouth and carried her yowling little body into his open chambers.

Settling her in front of the hearth, Severus, in his black panther body, groomed her until she felt languid and sleepy. Uncurling from where she had been in a ball with her tail wrapped around her she looked up into Severus' black eyes and nuzzled his big cheek. She felt safe, and warm, and loved wrapped up in his body that was easily at least five times of her little size. Their fur made an ironic contrast, light against dark. His the color of the darkest black it looked almost blue, and her's snow white. They were complete opposites the two other them, brought together by fate.

She couldn't imagine what she would do if anything ever happened to him.

 _I love him so much…_

It's just a crush, she would tell herself later on when she would catch herself staring at him in class. Looking at him, really, really, looking at him and thinking of how she knew he really was and not the man over the mask . It's just a crush.

 _I love you, girl…_ she heard in her drowsy head as she put a small paw on his nose.

 _I love you too…_

~.O.~

" _Everyone has an untold story hidden behind closed doors, try to understand not everyone is as they first seem."_

Hermione was still angry at Ron as they got ready to go to Hogsmeade, and she was starting to suspect something was wrong with with his rat. Crooks had been sitting in her lap just the other day, when Ron made a comment as he had leapt up with a spider in his mouth.

"Keep that beast over there," Ron had said, sneering at her familiar with disdain, not unlike how Severus looked at her two friends from time to time. "I've got Scabbers in my bag, he need his rest."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but looked to the fluffball who had tensed up and ran her fingernails down his spine in order to soothe him. It had worked right up until the disgusting little thing made it's appearance with it's nose poked up into the air. Crookshanks had lept on the disgusting little thing in seconds.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled at her, seizing his bag as Crookshanks sank four deep claws into the bag, spitting and slashing as Scabbers jumped out and ran under a chest of drawers.

"Crooks!" she gasped, trying to desperately grab him before Ron got to him.

In their attempt to get her familiar off the rat, Ron had hit him with his bag, sending him across the room and into a wall.

Hermione had felt a sharp pang in her chest seeing his body being thrown like a ragdoll into the stone wall as she gasped. She went to her knees next to her little boy, cradling him in her arms. He seemed fine, no longer yowling, sitting contentedly in her arms but kept his yellow eyes fixed on the brown lump Ron had in his hand. Everyone in the common room stared at Hermione, to Ron, and back to Hermione, knowing that she was fiercely protective of the half- Kneazle.

She handed him to Harry who took him readily, looking between her twisted face worriedly and to Ron's angry one who had not seen what he had done, too preoccupied with his rat.

He looked up to her with a furious expression similar to the one he always had before opening his mouth and saying something insensitive, but was cut off as he got slapped hard enough that it could be heard by the other Weasleys that had seen the whole ordeal from across the common room.

"You ever touch him again, Ron," she said in a quiet voice, "It won't be my cat you have to worry about killing your rat."

She turned away from his reddening cheek and walked over to get back Crooks from Harry who had been the only one to hear what she had told their friend, and slammed the portrait door on her way out.

"Did you hear what she said?" Ron asked with a pale face. He had seen Hermione's pupils contract into slits uch like Remus had.

Harry nodded, he had seen the same expression before in passing in his friend when Flint had called her a mudblood. She had the same twisted but expressionless face as then. He loved Hermione, she had always seemed so innocent and loving whenever she was hanging onto you, her arms wrapped around you in a hug and a brilliant smile on her face. But sometimes she would get that look, that chilling look when she saw or heard something she didn't like. Something niggled at the back of his mind as he nodded absently to his redheaded friend.

The other redheads only saw a hurt Hermione and thought of how much of a bloody wanker their brother was, getting his knickers in a twist about a rat he had been saying for years he hated.

Hermione had just come from Hagrid's building Buckbeak's case, when a loud bang went throughout the echoey hall, and Hermione jumped a foot off the ground, a yowl escaping her mouth. Quietly stalking towards the door in her little fox form, she heard two deep voices talking to one another, finishing their sentences. Shifting to her taller form, she opened the door to two redheaded twins standing next to a scorch mark on the stone of the empty classroom, smoke still rising from it.

She leaned against the heavy door, "Whatcha guys doing?"

It was their turn to jump and whirl around, big smiles on their faces when they only see it's her, "Hermione!"

She smiled, amused they tried to cover up whatever they were doing with their bodies, "Why shouldn't I tell a professor you guys are down here, when this hall is closed?"

"Because you're down here too-"

"And we'll give you a present."

George held out piece of yellowed parchment after tapping it and saying " _I solemnly swear I am up to no good..._ "

She took it, looking at them suspiciously, as thin ink lines spread like a spider's web from the point of his wand. They joined each other, criss crossed, and fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words that proclaimed:

 _Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

 _Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief- Makers_

 _are proud to present_

 _ **The Marauders Map**_

"We figure it was best to give it to you-"

"rather than Harry, cause we knew-"

"you wouldn't lose it."

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing about it was the tiny moving dots moving around, miniscule names attached to each ink spot. Hermione could see Professor Dumbledore pacing his office in the top left hand corner, Mrs. Norris was prowling the second floor corridor, and Severus coming around the corner towards where she stood. Just as she made to hide the words, she saw a name that made her blood run cold, and then boil under the surface.

"Thanks guys," she put her hands on each of their shoulders to bring their tall torsos' down to her height, and kissed their cheeks. "Professor Snape's coming down here, don't come out for a few minutes." She smiled sphinx- like, "I wouldn't have told a Professor on you by the way."

She danced out the room, and closed the door as Severus rounds the corner in his panther form. Reaching him, she puts her nose to his cold one and kisses him between the eyes.

" _How did you find me?"_ she asked him as she transformed. Hermione had always found it fascinating how animals could talk to each other, even if they were of a different species. She guess that it extended towards animagi as well, but in the head.

" _I always know where you are,"_ He swiped at her playfully as she ran circles around and under his legs. " _I can smell you. You could too if you focus on individual smell instead of the whole."_

She nipped at his heels, then yelped as he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

" _Fred and George gave me this map that shows all the people in the school. It calls itself the Marauders Map."_

He drops her to her feet, staring down at her with an upcurved lip, " _Potter and his little gang."_

" _It had Peter Pettigrew on it, attached to Ron. It's the rat."_

The full moon filtered in through the tall windows and hit his eyes that had seemed to darken to blacker than black.

~.O.~

"He knew my parents," Harry whispered to them as they huddled together in the Great Hall.

 _Idiots_. The voice inside Hermione's head sounded suspiciously like Severus, calling the Headmaster a dunderhead as well as the Minister who had given orders for the Dementors to remain around the school. The Great Hall was packed with the students of all the Houses, despite the fact Sirius Black had only broken into Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione had to jump on Severus' neck when she had told him about Pettigrew, for all the good it did as he tried to slink off and snap the dirty thing's neck. In the end she had convinced him to let her keep an eye on it, and wait for the right time to do what Black had tried to do that landed him in Azkaban.

"Were they friends?" Ron asked, giving Crookshanks who was kneading Hermione's stomach a wary look. He had apologized, albeit reluctantly after Harry had told him to make up with her, and Hermione had accepted but would not forget the sight of her familiar hitting the wall anytime soon.

"Yeah," Harry said, "Professor Lupin and my Dad were best friends, and Sirius Black, and someone that he killed..."

Hermione tuned out as Harry told a story Lupin had told him earlier in the day as everyone was in Hogsmeade, but started listening while playing Crooks' ears as he says Severus' name.

"Snape came in with a smoking goblet, and Lupin actually drank it!" Harry said, sounding amazed that his new favorite teacher would willingly drink something from the Potions Master that clearly didn't care much for him. Hermione knew exactly what the boy was getting at.

 _You wouldn't sound like that if you knew what your favorite teacher did along with your 'precious' father_.

She gave the boys a look, "Professor Snape wouldn't poison him, Harry."

Ron scowled blackley at her, "Why are you always defending him?"

Hermione opened her mouth to refute him, but she realized it was true, "Because, boys, I don't hate him for the fact that he has a black attitude."

They looked at her like she was crazy, so she rolled her eyes and turned over to cuddle with Crookshanks in the gradually silenting room.

 _Why do I try?_

~.O.~

"You shouldn't be out here, Harry!" Hermione whispered to the invisible cloaked boy who sat under her and Ron's table in the Three Broomsticks, the twins having told him the secret passageway through Honeydukes.

He pinched her calf and shushed her as Ron said the Minister had just came in with a few of the Hogwarts professors; she yanked his hair through his cloak as she was sure there would be a bruise in a few hours where he had pinched her. They had a conversation about Sirius, nothing Severus hadn't already told her, and Hermione could feel Harry climb out from under them and the wooden door blasted cold air into the pub as he slammed it open then closed.

Hermione and Ron exchanged looked, and went after him.

They found him sitting on a log a little ways off the road back to the castle, sitting in the snow with a pained look on his face. They sat on either side of him, waiting for him to say something.

"How could someone be friends for as long as they were, and betray them the way he did?" Hermione felt bad for the boy that had been abused all his life, and figured out so much in one go around that had caused his parents to be murdered. "He was my godfather."

 _Or so he thought, and I can't tell him the truth least he ask who told me._

Hermione grabbed his cold hand and squeezed it, seeing Ron flash his eyes towards them and get a look on his face and ignored it, "Sometimes people can hide big secrets, Harry. Even from the people they love the most, for all anyone knows he could have been forced. Or tricked."

Harry stood up, anger and hate filling his face with a look of absolute malice. "No!" he shouted, brushing snow off his pants roughly. His voice was husky, the sort of sound you get when you are trying to hold back every emotion you're feeling from spilling down your cheeks. "He had a choice! And he made it. I ever get my hands on him, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him the same way my parents were killed because of him."

Hermione looked at him sympathetically

 _Oh, Honey. You couldn't kill anyone any more than I could kill Severus._

 **A/N: Reviews please!**

 **XOXO**


	10. 3rd Year Part Three

**Chapter 10**

 **A/N: I love you all sooo much! I haven't really been writing that much lately so I'm behind cause I'm graduating in a month so I'm a little frazzled with last minute college stuff, but I'll try my best to update. One more chapter to go after this in third year and then I'm going to go on a little break to finish fourth year… happy reading!**

" _If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability to see yourself through my eyes, only then would you realize how special you are to me."_

Hermione had set Crookshanks the task of following Pettigrew around when she couldn't, and she found that the rat had a very poor sense of smell, seeing as he hadn't smelled either of them as of yet. From what she had heard, he was a poor, timid excuse of a human being, and he was and even poorer excuse of an animagi. She curled her lip at the thought of the small rat- faced boy she had found in their Hogwarts yearbook.

Harry and Ron were shunning her. Because of a broom. A broom probably sent by the very person he had threatened to kill not a fortnight ago.

Hermione sipped her tea and snorted as she pet Severus' sleek messenger raven, Dougal.

Her thoughts wandered off…

She had often noticed that animals tended to shy from Severus, excluding Crookshanks of course, and that when he got mail, it would more often than not be given to the Headmaster rather than to him directly. So, she had given the temperamental raven to her temperamental man for his thirty- fifth birthday in January. Being the only bird in the menagerie that seemed to be the most frisky, she knew he would be the perfect present as they shared the same characteristically bite and scratch personality.

The day she had revealed her hypothesis about Pettigrew, she had seen that the bird didn't easily get scared as she came upon Severus' trashed chambers; him sitting in his favorite armchair surrounded by glass as Dougal pecked at his hair as he ignored him bringing up a tumbler of firewhiskey to his lips. Hermione stood in front of him, keeping her face perfectly blank. She had left him to get out his anger earlier in the day, knowing a cranky, angry, Severus was not a good Severus to be around. It was only a matter of time until his magic caused devastation if he did not satisfy his physical angers.

His fingers dug into her hips as he suddenly grabbed her and brought her to him, his head coming to rest upon her shoulder.

"Why do you put up with me?" he asks, and Hermione's heart squeezes in her chest.

They have gone over this many times before, and she gives the same answer each time.

She grabs his chin and lifts his face to hers, cupping his cheek, "You need to get it through your head, Severus, that I love you." She saw his lips part, so she covered them with her palm. "I may be young, but I am not stupid. I would like to think that I know you more than anyone else does, and I will be here until you ask me to leave." He pulled her into his lap, kissing her wrist. "I am not your parents, I am not Lily, Dumbledore, or the Dark Lord."

Severus says not one word, he just stares, and stares, until he leans forward until his lips come to the corner of her mouth.

She is hit with an not so sudden epiphany.

 _There's no going back now._

~.O.~

"What happened?" Hermione asked the Fat Lady as she came to the entrance of the common room now being guarded by trolls. Ser Cadogan had been the guard portrait for a while now, and something drastic must have happened for the Fat Lady to come back after Sirius scratched up her previous one.

She was in a daze, she knew her feelings about Severus, but she knew she was also too young to make a decision about something as big as this about someone so much older than her.

 _Ah, feelings are complicated… I don't know what I'm feeling… that's it… I have no idea what the warm feeling in my chest means..._

"Sirius Black was back again, dear," she slurred, looking very twitchy as if he would jump out of the darkness at any moment. Hermione snapped out of her thoughts. She brought a wine glass to her lips, swaying dangerously as if she would fall out of her portrait. "I needed a little of this to build up my courage," she raised the endless wine bottle in her other hand, "That knight let him in, so the Headmaster compromised," she waved the glass to both sides to her vaguely to the large stone like shirtless trolls on either side of her painting. "Such a nice Headmaster, Dumbledore… Go on in dear, you might want to check on that red- headed friend of yours."

She swung open to reveal a once again, crowded common room filled with arguing older year students, dozing first years, and a pale furious McGonagall looking as if she could throttle a cowering Neville who stood in front of her.

"Harry," she sneaked into the crowd unnoticed, coming to a stop behind him, touching his elbow

"Where have you been?" he grabbed her in a hug, and she saw Ron glance at them from where he stood next to Neville, looking for all the world he was being tortured.

"In the library. Sirius Black was here again? How does he keep getting in?"

"He tried to stab Ron in his bed," Hermione got a pang in her heart, and even though she knew Sirius was after Scabbers, it didn't take away the worry that Ron could be possible collateral damage.

 _Can't be mad at them for ignoring me about the broom now..._

"Neville, wrote down the passwords Ser Cagadon gave him for the week and Black found them in the halls somewhere."

Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose, something she had picked up from Severus.

 _Dear, Merlin..._

"Yeah," he looked at her sideways from where he had pulled back for their hug looking around the room. "I'm sorry about the broom."

She gave him a look, still displeased at his immaturity, "You and Ron have a habit of getting mad at me for doing things that are to protect the two of you."

He looked slightly ashamed, "I know." They were quiet for a moment, each other seemingly waiting for the other to say something else, but Hermione had nothing else to say on the matter. She had given up on them looking at her true intentions and only seeing that she was just trying to ' _ruin their fun because all she had were her books.'_

"I'm sorry," he nudged her crossed arms, trying to get her to break down.

She was resigned, so she nudged him back. And then smiled.

"Do it again, and I won't bother being mad at you two, I'll just hex you then be on my way."

He shuddered, knowing she would, turning to where Ron was coming towards them.

"Scabbers is gone, and look what I found on my bed after that maniac tried to kill me."

Harry knew what was going to happen now, and he had no sympathy for his determined friend. "Ron," he tried warning, but it was too late.

Ron held up three long ginger hairs he dug out of his dressing gown's striped pocket.

Harry stepped back from where he had stood between them.

Hermione's eyes narrowed, and Crookshanks meowed innocently as he rubbed up against Harry's legs.

~.O.~

"Put your hood up," Hermione told Draco as they stood in the shadows before they entered a bookshop in the shadier part of Hogsmeade.

Being the last Hogsmeade trip as the Professors were afraid of Sirius roaming around, Hermione knew it was time to grab the book Severus didn't yet have in his collection. Ron had abandoned her as soon as Harry was out of sight, thinking she had let Crookshanks kill his stupid rat. In fact, the last they had seen of Pettigrew had been when she and her familiar had chased him into Hagrid's hut, and haven't smelled him coming out since; so he had still ought to be in there hiding from his clingy master. His avoidance probably also had something to do with the charm she had placed on Ron making him think spiders were trying to cuddle with him whenever he sat down.

 _Oops…_

"Couldn't Uncle Severus have gotten this book? Or my father?" The blonde asked as he mimicked her actions and pulled up a cowl over their heads to mask their identity.

"He needs it today, and he has meetings with the other teachers about Black so he can't exactly sneak out of the castle." She placed her wand to her throat, and then Draco's, glamouring their voices to sound older and not as high pitched.

"What's so special about it?" The nosey boy asked as he took the innocuous looking leather bound book out of her hands as they exit into the sunlight in front of Honeydukes. "It's just another potions book."

"It is for the Dark Lord, Draco." She told him, and he immediately held it back out to her as they avoided the people they knew, knowing they shouldn't be seen together.

They were quiet, and Hermione had a suspicion that Draco wanted to ask something, "Out with it now, we don't have all day."

"How come Severus tells you so much?"

She looked at him, and only saw simple curiosity, "He has to talk to someone, Draco. Someone who won't judge him for doing the things he has to do." That's all she would tell him without going into detail about how she herself felt about the dark man.

He studied her face, then nodded in assent.

She changed the subject, "Has the Board of Governors decided about what to do with Buckbeak?"

Hagrid had been beside himself when he had told them the hippogriff was being put on trial after he had scratched Draco that day in class.

He grimaced, "I forgot to tell you, they are going to make an example of him. To teach Hagrid a lesson about bringing his little 'pets' for the classes to see."

"Oh," Hermione felt bad now. She didn't much feel bad about people being executed, but she didn't think animals deserve to be killed just because they were provoked into doing something by a stupid.

She slapped the back of her friend's head.

"Ow!"

"You're an idiot."

~.O.~

" _Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the woman's another we keep hidden inside."_

" _Hermione.."_ someone was shaking her out of her warm dreams, " _Hermione… Girl..."_

"Severus," she whined, batting at his hand.

She heard him sigh, and then her head was lifted and he slid his legs underneath her to cushion her head, his fingers carding through her curls. She was taking on too much he had seen since the first month of school. Her face had thinned out even more than it already was, giving way to shadows underneath her glittering eyes, and her curls had seemed to become even more unruly with her lack of sleep.

He smiled down at her as she rubbed her eyes with her fists like a little kid would do, and his heart squeezed.

They had only known each other for three years, and in that three years, this little girl had brought back so much light into his life that he hadn't thought was possible since Lily had disowned him as a friend. She had brought laughter back into the house that had never known it, and made him feel as if he was the center of her universe.

She smiled up at him, and his heart thumped as her little fingers reached up and rubbed his stubbly jaw. Although most wizards preferred to shave with magic, he kept to his muggle roots and shaved with his father's old blade as wand- shaving didn't shave the shaft of the hair close enough for his tastes. She seemed to like it at the end of the day when it shadowed his jaw.

"That old fool shouldn't have given you that time turner in your third year," she snuggled up and nuzzled her face into his stomach. She had always been such a physically affectionate child, and it didn't seem as if she would grow out of it. Though, he couldn't say he minded one bit.

"I would have done it eventually though anyway, might as well be now. I'm still taking the same classes I would take next year, anyway. Besides, it's almost over." She blinked tiredly up at him, sitting up on his lap and wrapped her arms around her neck. "You look how I feel." He sat underneath her in his white wrinkled dress shirt halfway unbuttoned, bare feet touching the carpet Hermione had insisted on covering the cold floor with to make it more homey.

"You look how you feel," he wrapped his arms around her small frame, talking into her hair.

"What were you doing? You've been working for hours." She mumbled into his neck, starting to doze off once more. "Did the book help?"

"Yes, girl. I found the answer." He pulls back slightly and kisses the side of her head. "Your book helped immensely."

"What answer?"

"I found the potion that will bring back the Dark Lord's health."

Her eyes snapped open, and she pulled back. Looking at him astonished, but her thoughts turned confused at the look on his face. Cocking her head to the side in question.

"You're not going to like it."

~.O.~

Hagrid looked horrible. He did not cry, nor throw himself down on our necks, but he did look like a man who didn't know where he was, or what to do. Hermione felt tears brim in her eyes as she threw herself at him, breathing in the musty smell of his coat.

"I'm sorry, Hagrid," she choked out, knowing that if Crooks was about to be killed she would be crying non- stop and refuse to come out of her room.

He patted her back as she pulled away and wiped away the stray tears that had fallen, "I know, 'Ermione. Thanks for yer help with the case."

She set about making tea for the boys, trying to calm herself as she was, she shrieked so suddenly as she dropped the milk jug, the others jumped at the unexpected sound.

"'Mione?" Harry asked, but then saw the source of her surprise trying to scurry across the floor.

Hermione quickly caught the shifty rat by his bald tail and dropped him into Ron's hands. He grabbed the struggling thing and held him up to the light; thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed as though desperate to free himself.

"He looks pretty good for a _dead_ rat," she told him turning from where he looked up at her and opened his mouth, but she didn't want to hear it. Then she heard voices outside and went to the window, "They're here."

Watching the Minister, Headmaster, and the executioner, Mcnair, trudge down the hill towards Hagrid's hut and past the pumpkin patch where they crouched behind, Hermione felt and anger in her chest as she saw Dumbledore's silvery beard shining in the dying sun. He was revered as one of the most powerful wizards of the century, yet he couldn't help save a simple hippogriff.

 _Or it benefits him none to see Hagrid happy and a single beast alive and roaming around the castle grounds._

The boys started making their way around the patch as soon as the wooden door closed, but when they saw Hermione still crouched down, they paused.

" _Hermione, hurry up!"_ They whispered furiously at her, beckoning her to hurry up the hill before the adults saw they were out of the castle this close to dark. " _They're going to see us!"_

She made a split second decision, " _Harry, give me your cloak!"_

He knew not to argue with her, knowing the others would be coming out at any moment, and handed over the invisibility cloak they had used to get out of the castle.

" _Be careful,"_ he told her right before they hauled up the hill and her body became invisible to the naked eye.

Going up to Buckbeak, she ran a hand over the soft feathers situated between his big orange eyes, and whispered to him as she untied his rope. Lowering the hood of the cloak just enough for him to see it was her, she hoped the little bit of cat in her from the polyjuice last year prompted him enough to trust her without attacking like he did Draco.

" _Come on, Beaky,"_ she whispered, picking up the ferrets Hagrid must have been eating to lure him into the woods where she could tie him to a tree so he wouldn't wonder off.

"That's a good boy," she stroked him once more as he bowed down on his knees, munching on his snacks. "I'll be back to get you later."

Running back up the the sloping hill, she saw Ron running after Pettigrew, who had jumped out of his arms, and end up under the Whomping Willow right as a dark shadow emerges from the forest shadows, and streaks toward him. Hermione's heart skips a beat as she yanks back the hood of the cloak and yells at the same time as Harry…

" _Ron!"_

But it was too late.

Sirius, in his animagus form of a dog, dragged the boy who got on her last nerve, but still loved, under the willow tree by the arm and down the hole that lead into the Shrieking Shack. Harry, the other boy she loved like a brother, stayed true to his savior aspect personality and followed them down the hole while the tree tried to bat at him.

"Stupids, idiot, complete _bloody_ idiots," Hermione muttered, conjuring a patronus to send to Severus and bring him to where she knew the tunnel ended up. "Always getting into these situations."

Crookshanks pressed the knot of the trunk to freeze it, and she entered the very dark tunnel after him that seemed to go on for ages until it rose and twisted with dim light at the end a short way in front of her. Coming out into a very disordered and dusty room that had the paper peeling from it's scratched walls. There were stains all over the floor, and had boarded up windows. It looked as if a spell had been cast onto it to repair the worst of the damage, but there was only so much magic could do, and Hermione was surprised it looked this way after so many years. Based on the mended and torn wallpaper, this had to be the place Remus changed during the full moons. Such as tonight.

"Bloody hell," Hermione whispered, knowing they had to get out of here fast, but also knew they weren't that lucky.

Quietly as she could, she crept up the stairs, following the shiny stripe in the heavily dust coated floor and the footprints. Crookshanks stayed by her feet, meowing up at her as they heard a yell that sounded suspiciously like Harry's, and then another followed by a thud and Ron yelling.

Entering the room, she found a strange sight indeed. One that would have made her laugh if it had been in any other situation: Ron stood over a wrestling Harry and Sirius, one hand trying to grasp at his friend's shoulder, the other wounded one dripping blood onto the floor while still managing to hold onto his rat. Crookshanks had decided to join the fray and was clawing at Black's face and chest, getting Harry at some point and marking him across the side of his neck.

The redhead saw her first and yelled, "' _Mione! Do something! They're trying to kill each other!"_ Then his eyes shifted to the people she had smelled coming up the stairs behind her, and his eyes flooded with relief. And then distaste.

Remus had pushed her aside with his wand drawn, sending the two fighting men flying in opposite directions, and Severus moved to stand between her and the side of the room Sirius had landed on. No matter how small it was, he was going to be between them no matter what.

Remus went to help Sirius up as Ron went to Harry, and Hermione got a good look at him, feeling a moment of sympathy for his wasted years in Azkaban, but then remembered he could have gotten Severus killed all those years ago with a stupid prank. His mass of filthy, matted, hair as long as her own hung limply down to his waist, and if his eyes hadn't been blinking in their sockets, she would have mistaken him for a vampire. His pale waxy skin stretched over his bones like paper, his veins showing through under his many tattoos as the poor light highlighted the darkness that was already there.

"Where is he, Sirius?" Remus asked, bewildering anyone who had no clue as to what he was after. Mainly the boys who blinked at Sirius' expressionless face as he pointed to Ron, who still held onto the struggling vermin that was Peter Pettigrew.

"Professor Lupin," Harry spoke up, looking shiftily to a now twitchy Sirius, "What's going on? Why are you defending him? You know what he did to my parents!" He still looked as if he would lunge at him, but saw the angry cat in the middle of them who had been thrown aside as well as they did.

Remus was showing the signs of the closeness of the full moon quite clearly now. "He didn't kill your parents Harry. Peter Pettigrew did."

Harry grew pale at the name, and now looked uncertain, "You're lying. You said he died."

"I was wrong." Remus nodded to Ron who now had a lump in his robes from where Scabbers now lay, his wand hand giving a little twitch, "He turned himself into the Weasley family rat while gaining information to use once he made his way back to the Dark Lord. Give it to us and we will show you"

The silence was an entity of it's own, only broken by Ron's protest.

"You're both mental."

And then a hiss and ripping fabric as Crookshanks followed his mistress' nod and clawed at Ron's ragged robes and caught the rodent in his teeth.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled at her, trying to get to his pet as Harry held him back with doubt written on his face, "Let him go! I'm going to kill that bloody cat!"

"Ron!" Harry screamed at him, "Let them do it!" Ron stopped struggling, now looking at Harry as if he had lost a few marbles of his own.

"Calm down, Ron," Hermione told him, just as Pettigrew turned around in her familiar's jaws and raked his tiny claws across the face making him yowl in pain. Remus went to grab him.

Spells and colors bounced off in a line behind his tiny scurrying and abused body, and Hermione went to a bleeding Crooks. Severus following beside her, making sure nothing hit her small body.

"My poor baby," she cooed as she picked him up right at the time one of the men's charms' hit Pettigrew and made his small rat body twist madly. His head sprouting from the little body, limbs elongating, and in the next moment, a short man not much taller than Hermione stood wringing his hands where Scabbers once stood.

Ron whimpered.

Sirius Black gave a yell of " _He's mine!"_ that was followed by Professor Lupin screaming at him, and a tense Severus was knocked aside by the tattooed man as the two other boys cowered and ran to their friend who stood behind their hated professor. Once again, the grown men forgot they were wizards and tried to settle things with violence like typical men, so Hermione took it into her own hands to render the cowering man unconscious.

Man and boy alike turned to the girl in their midst, who mimicked the orange glare the familiar in her arms was given them.

"You're all infected with stupid," she told them all, excluding Severus of course who had not said a word since entering the Shack. "Bind him up before he wakes up." She shook her head, following behind Severus as he went to the stairs, " _Wizards."_

 **A/N: Reviews! Reviews! Reviews! XOXO**


	11. 3rd Year Part Four

**Chapter 11**

 **A/N: Last chapter for Year 3! I'm way behind on this story cause I've been distracted with reading, and painting… and school, but… I'm graduating! Yay (Sort of)! So I will try to be as productive with writing as I can with the classes I'm going to be doing to get a Pharmacy Tech license before actual college starts.**

 **Hope y'all like this chapter, it's a bit shorter than the previous ones, but it's something :)**

" _The prisoner, who now stand before you, was caught red handed showing feelings. Showing feelings of an almost human nature. This will not do. "_

Hermione and Severus were the first ones out from under the Whomping Willow, followed by Harry, Sirius, and a now conscious and once again sobbing Pettigrew who was tied to Remus and Ron.

"I shouldn't have asked you to come out here," she told him as they exited the tunnel as the others followed down the stairs. "I know you hate this place."

"You shouldn't have been in there in the first place," he told her, still looking tense as he shot a loathing glance to Sirius and Harry who stood off to the side. "If Lupin had shifted already they would have been cleaning you off the floor by now, him as well since I would have killed him and be well on my way to Azkaban."

She gave him a look, now seeing his face twist and jam a hand into his robes, "Don't be so crass, Severus." She turned back to him as she hears him curse and pull out a vial of brown liquid, and it dawned on her as the clouds shifted to reveal the full moon she had forgotten about in the chaos. "He didn't take it today did he?" She asked, but she knew the answer was no as Remus gave a sudden shout and doubled over.

After whispering in his furry ear, Hermione let Crookshanks leap out of her arms and into the dark forest.

" _Remus!"_ Sirius yelled as Hermione yelled at Harry to move away from the shifting werewolf. " _Harry run!"_

Lupin's limbs had begun to shake, and a terrible snarling noise had risen in the back of his throat that sounded more like an animal growling than any noise a human would make. His head lengthened, his arms and legs popping into a curve much like a wolve's as they shot up in size, and his shoulders hunched in pain as his raggedy clothes ripped from his body as hair sprouted from any visible clear skin into a thick pelt.

Hermione moved to grab Harry from the wolf's reach with Severus behind her, but she instead had put herself in the circle of motion and was raked across the chest. Severus had pulled her back in time though, and only her shirt was ripped, revealing the time turner hidden underneath her robes.

As the werewolf reared back, snapping its long jaws at them, Sirius disappeared, in his place was a large dog almost half the size of the werewolf. The werewolf wrenched free of it's binding to Peter and Ron, making them fall to a heap on the ground which gave Pettigrew the perfect opportunity to seize Lupin's fallen wand and transform himself back to his rat form, following the path Crookshanks had made into the Forbidden Forest. Sirius and Lupin rolled down the hill out of sight, snarling and yelping following them on their way down.

Harry breaks out of Hermione's grasp and goes after them, and she doesn't notice as Severus grabs her shoulders in a steely grip as they fall to their knees in front of each other, "You stupid, _stupid_ girl!" Terror was written all over his face, but not only for her, but seeing the werewolf that had tormented him for years she saw right before her eyes blurred and the tight feeling in her chest expanded and bursts.

She finally sobs, giving into all the pressure of the night's events and grabs onto his forearms and bows her head, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed happen, it wasn't..." she continues to babble incoherently as she hears Ron tell them in the background that he was going to go get help, and then the pounding of his feet as he runs off.

"Hermione," Severus tries to calm her unsuccessfully, pulling her to her feet and burying her face in his coat. "Hermione, you need to calm down. The dementors will know Black is here by now, and Potter went after him and Lupin."

She pulls back sniffling, and nods, pulling him to stand behind the willow tree and lifting the chain of her golden necklace over his neck.

She turns the dial, and then they were flying backwards in time.

~.O.~

"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore," Hermione told the man standing in front of her and Severus outside the Hospital Wing's doors, "You trusted me with the Time Turner and I let you down."

He smiled at her understandingly and nods, eyes flicking to a silent Severus and waves them by from where he had stopped them as they exited from talking to Harry and Ron.

They walk away and Hermione slides her hand into the lining of her robes and touches the golden hourglass.

She looks up to his stony face, and sighs, "You know we had to let him go, Severus,"

He looks down to her, "I know."

He says no more as Hermione resigns herself to his silence until she could show him the consolation prize she knew would not exactly cheer him up so much as temper his anger into something useful.

Though not unfounded, Hermione could understand his reaction to their situation, he was reacting exactly how she suspected to them saving Sirius from the dementors and sending him off on Buckbeak. Severus had not wanted to do it, that was clear, but the Headmaster had expectations of people, and if they were not met, it would cause more problems than it was worth. She had not been elated after the fact either, far from it knowing how it was affecting the man next to her, but she knew helping Black escape would help Harry in the long run after he was mistreated so much by his own blood.

Hermione takes Severus' hand, and leads him into the Forbidden Forest.

Walking through the dark world they had entered, Hermione felt at peace where normally others would feel creeped out by the quietness of it all and the shining eyes blinking out at them from the tall trees and berry bushes.

"What are we doing here, girl?" he speaks up finally, without her having to prompt him into talking and squeezing her hand to show her he was not being silent with her, but was only displeased with how their day had ended so far.

She motions to the opposite side of the small clearing they had entered, and there was Crookshanks, batting at a scurrying dirty little rodent on the prickly forest floor.

"I have a present for you. Crookshanks was sweet enough to catch him for you." She can feel his gaze flicking to the two animals, and to the side of her face, "Do with him what you will, but we cannot allow him to take our place with the Dark Lord. Gods know what he has heard scurrying around the dungeons."

She raises her gaze up his tall figure to his burning eyes, looking at her as he never has before, and she shivers at the intensity of it.

"No," he drawls, his eyes lighting up with something unreadable as he pulls out his wand, "We wouldn't want that."

Crookshanks retracts his claws and holds his tail up jauntily high as he struts towards his mistress and his master, meowing up at them cutely as Hermione smiles and picks him up, butting his head with her's.

 _Mistress and Master safe from the smelly rat man now…_

~.O.~

"Snape has changed," Sirius told Remus as they sat on the dusty couch in Number 2 Grimmauld place after moving in Remus' few things into his new room.

Remus look to him, searching his face and waiting for him to say something else. "He has."

"Harry's friend, the girl-"

"Hermione," Remus supplied for him.

"Hermione, she is a very clever witch." He paused. "They seem close. From what I've seen."

The werewolf nodded, knowing he was broaching the subject of what he had witnessed many times before when no one else was watching.

 _Hermione looking at Severus much more than any other student did while they sat in the Great Hall…_

 _They pass each other in the Hall, and Severus passes her with one of his signature snarky remarks but leaves with a slightly different smirk than his usual snarl…_

 _That one time he had happened upon them as the girl exited his chambers in the dungeons…_

 _He allows her to touch him…_

 _To boss him around…_

"They were arguing about something when they broke me out of the tower at Hogwarts," Sirius was saying, his words slurring slightly, not used to the alcohol content of the firewhiskey. His eyes were far away from their conversation as he talked without really hearing what he was saying, "We've all changed, a lot."

 _Sirius stood stroking Buckbeak after bowing to him, his ears picking up only snippets of the man he had hated so much in school, and his godson's tiny little friend. He had to admit he wasn't paying attention much until he heard Harry's name come up…_

" _... needs someone who will take care of him. Someone that will love him." Sirius watched them as they glanced back at him occasionally, and it seemed as if what Hermione had been saying got through to the greasy man as he straightened his shoulders._

 _Severus' head bowed from where he could see them as Hermione looked up to him with an open and pleading face, the face which lit up with a smile when Snape mumbled something at her which he couldn't hear._

 _The breeze rustled the girl's wild hair which sent her scent toward Sirius, and he found it odd that even if Severus was standing in front of her from his vantage point as they walked towards him, it occurred to him that they smelled exactly the same._

"I haven't seen someone tell Snape what to do since him and Lily were friends, and him actually listen." Sirius said, breaking out of his hazy thoughts and put his crystal tumbler down onto the coffee table. "Or, look at him the way she does."

Remus' face was staring down at his drink as his friend bored a hole into the side of his face, "I've noticed it to."

 _But she never looked at him the way this small girl does..._

"What are we going to do about it?"

"There is nothing to do, Sirius." Remus finally looked at him, "We have tormented that man long enough, it is time to stop." He knew his words were fruitless, once Sirius Black got something in his head, especially concerning Severus, it was hard to get him off of it. "The man saved your life for Merlin's sake, if it weren't for him, you would be rotting away in Azkaban. A shell of what you are now."

Sirius got his signature stubborn look on his face, not listening to the man sitting next to him. He drinks his firewhiskey, and starts making a plan to see how close his childhood rival was to Harry's best friend.

 **A/N: I love you all and I will try and post as soon as possible with Year 4! Tell me what y'all think about this chapter!**

 **6.5.18**


	12. 4th Year Part One

**Chapter 12**

 **A/N: The long awaited year four has come! I have had many reviews asking me to not give up on this story, and I will not. My OCD and perfectionist tendancies will not allow me to ;) The chapters will just be a little spaced out due to my first year of college which I will be starting in a week. Sooo, here we are! I love you guys for sticking with me, and I hope y'all enjoy.**

 **Now- this year will be all about Hermione finding out what she wants, and in some later chapters there will not be as much Hermione/ Severus interaction, but that will be made up for in year 5 (which I have already started.)**

 **Happy reading! :***

" _Even an animal, if you show genuine affection, trust gradually develops… If you always showing bad face and beating, how can you develop friendship?"_

 _Dalai Lama_

He felt his tongue flicking out of his mouth, tasting the air around him for his master as his belly grew cold from the pale marble floor. He didn't like cold things. It was very cold where he had been stranded after his master disappeared. It was very hard to find warm places where he used to be. He could hear him calling him, could taste the scent of other people in the air. The heavy oaken door was cracked open, in anticipation for his arrival. He couldn't control his body, but he didn't fight it as his little heart beat faster.

He slithered into the room and onto a carpet that was a welcome warmth from the cold tile. A man was sitting in the armchair he was headed to, talking to other people in the room that he wasn't particularly interested in at this exact moment. He was concerned about the emaciated man slumped into the plush cushions. A very pale man he was, made even more so by the contrast of the dark cloth surrounding him, he looked so much weaker than previously had on any other day with his thick black hair hanging over his red eyes. But his voice was strong today, stronger than his body would imply.

The man reached his hand out to him as he wound himself around his other arm and neck, and was content to close his eyes until the other strangers in the room left. He was dozing lightly when he felt a hand on his sweet spot top his head, causing him to hiss lightly in a mock purr. His eyes were heavy, and he barely heard the woman's voice in the other language his master spoke.

" _She's beautiful, my lord,"_ he opened his eyes just enough to see wild curls framing carmel eyes and a tall dark haired man just beside her before his heavy lids slid closed once more.

Miles and miles away, Harry Potter's eyes snapped open, his chest heaving as he hears the snap of an apparition outside the Burrow.

 _What was that?_

Padding silently past a snoring Ron, Harry looked out the window down to the front yard where Hermione and Snape made their way through past the apparition line holding hands as her cat twisted around their ankles.

 _What were they doing together? And why were they still holding hands?_

~.O.~

Severus was looking at her as they walked across the yard, and she knew what he was thinking. She always knew what he was thinking.

They had gotten up two hours before dawn to meet the Dark Lord one last time before school started, and she got the crazy idea to ask him to pet his familiar. She just had looked so different that any other snake she had seen, and rightly so since she was bound to a man who had died once before. In her eyes, Nagini was so beautiful in all her green and purple shining scales much like a mermaid's, she fit the 'immortal' Dark Lord.

Hermione flashed back to the first time she had met the Tom Riddle in all his glory outside of the book she helped purge him from.

" _My Lord," Hermione bowed in front of the wasted man, taking his hand and kissing it as he sat in Lucius' favorite dark purple velvet chair. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest and willed it to calm least he hear it._

" _Up, Hermione," He put a gentle hand on her head, making her rise to her feet. "Leave us," He told Severus and the Malfoys' who had been hovering behind her._

 _Hermione looked to Severus who looked wary at leaving her until she nodded her head at him to follow the blonde family before the Dark Lord noticed his hesitation. He may be weak, but he would not forget insolence when he gained his strength back._

" _I do not much say this to many people," he began as he turned back to her after staring at the fire for a few silent moments, his red eyes gleaming in the dark room. "But thank you for getting me back out of that book."_

 _Hermione was stunned at his show of human personality, Sev had talked often of how he had not shown much emotion since he had begun to lose his wits about him shortly before he had killed the Potters. Now, she almost felt a bout of sympathy for him and the life she had learned he lived when he was a boy. Almost. It would take much more than a simple thank you from a man who had instilled fear into the wizarding world to convince her that he was really a good person._

 _She knew his mood could change at the drop of a hat._

 _She smiled at him slightly, "Thank you, My Lord. It was really Severus though, he was the one to show me the truth about you."_

 _He nodded to her, slowly raising the glass he held to his lips. This was when he had first gotten his new body and he could still do things on his own._

"He let you touch her."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, one of the many habits she picked up from him, "Yes."

"How? How do you make people love you? Why are you making him affectionate towards you?"

She blushed and looked down smiling, but it gradually faded, "He doesn't seem like the same person you talked about, Severus. He's not the same person who tried to kill Harry." She saw the blank look on his face and sighed, "I know what we have to do, Severus, and I know what he's done. I'm not making excuses, I'm just saying what I'm seeing from him." She stopped him as they got to the bottom of the steps leading to the front door with a hand on his elbow. She put her hands on the sides of his neck, "I have to make him feel something for me, Sev. It might not stop him completely if he ever finds out of our true goals, but it may help us in the long run if he hesitates just long enough. If he trusts us more than any other Death Eater he has, he will be less suspicious of us being moles in his organization when you start reporting to Dumbledore."

He stared once again for a moment, not saying anything on his mind.

 _He's been doing that a lot…_

He ran his lips over both her pulsing wrists, "You, my dear, are an exceptionally talented and intelligent little witch."

Her eyes crinkled as her lips turned up, saying, "I know," just as the door opens to a disheveled Harry who's hair was all over the place.

Hermione's smile widened, and launched herself at her best friend who caught her around her waist as she buried her nose into his chest.

"Harry!" He had a growth spurt over the summer months so he was a few inches taller than her now, now only an inch shorter than Ron, but still a way to go before catching up to the man behind her.

He laughed, but something was laying underneath it, and she didn't see him looking as Severus over her shoulder with an odd look on his face. The other man only raised an eyebrow at the boy, putting a hand on Hermione's back to move her aside as the two teenagers broke apart.

She looked up at him with a smile on her face, "I'm going to talk to Molly." They could hear Mrs. Weasley and Ginny talking in the lighting kitchen, the rest of the house stirring into wakefulness in preparation for the rest of the day.

Hermione nodded up at him as she moved Harry to the inside of the door, closing it behind her as the dark man swept past them into the living room.

"Why is he here?"

Hermione frowned at him as they followed his footsteps towards the kitchen, "Dumbledore asked if he could accompany us to the World Cup because of the Death Eater attacks." There had been an increasing number of Dark Marks lingering in the sky from Voldemort's followers on his orders, but he had yet to speak to others of the inner circle in person as he had not wanted them to see his weakness. He had delegated Severus and Lucius as the go- between him and his followers, and they had been given the responsibility of coordinating an attack on the World Cup.

 _All hell was going to break loose…_

Harry now had a scowl on his face which Hermione saw and stopped him just out the door from the kitchen. "You don't have to like him, Harry, and you don't have to talk to him. But you do have to accept his help, for no other reason than Dumbledore trusts him."

She turned to push open the door as Harry grabbed her hand before she did, she had an impatient look about her face he saw. One he didn't have often directed at him, or that she directed much at the people she loved such as the Weasleys. She had been getting that look a lot when someone talked down about Snape he realized…

… _maybe she always had it._

"Do you trust him?" He asked, but had a feeling as to what the answer was.

She didn't hesitate, "I do."

Harry didn't follow after her in the kitchen, knowing Mrs. Weasley would put him to work, so he went into the garden to await the rest of the house to wake and watch the dawn break over the hill, thinking about Hermione.

 _She has always been this way._

~.O.~

"Hermione," Arthur said as they all got ready to leave the house, Bill, Charlie, and Percy just coming down for breakfast as they got ready to depart from the house seeing as they would be apparating and not arriving by Portkey.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked, crossing her little beaded bag that held an Undetectable Extension charm on it she had gotten from Severus for her new birthday, the Time Turner last year having messed with her months.

"I've told you," the tall thin man smiled at her, "Call me Arthur."

Hermione grinned back at him, watching as the others wrestled with putting on their bulging backpacks. "Arthur."

"Well, the Portkey holds only so many people, it being so small and all. Severus offered to side- along someone, and I thought you might put up less of a fuss than the boys," He looked towards his sons, Ginny, and Harry and saying almost to himself, "Have no idea why. He's perfectly hospitable."

Hermione almost doubled over laughing, but couldn't help a small surprised giggle from escaping through her fingers.

 _Perfectly amicable when he's not teaching a classroom full of dunderheads who won't look past their noses in order to get to know him._

She saw the man in questions' feet come quietly down the winding stair, "Of course, Arthur. I don't mind. And I agree, he's perfectly... _hospitable._ "

 _Towards me…_

The room went silent at the sight of the Potions Master as he got to the bottom of the steps, save for one 'whispered' " _I didn't know he had anything other than black that made him look like a bat"_ from Fred and George simultaneously. Mrs. Weasley passed them with a slap to the head saying how glad she was that Severus was there to help keep her boys and her girls safe, Arthur agreeing with his wife. Wearing his usual frock coat, the rest of the students in the room were not accustomed to seeing Severus without his teaching robes on, and although it wasn't much of a change, they were still shocked their uptight Professor _would_ change in the first place.

Hermione and Severus made their way with the group to the Portkey side by side with Ginny occasionally glancing nervously at the man on the other side of her friend as they talked. Harry mimicked the redheaded Weasley, though more stealthily than the girl as he was unnoticed up until Hermione grabbed Severus around his waist, he placing his arm around her shoulders, and Hermione smiled at him as she pointed towards the boot he was supposed to have ahold of.

"I wouldn't give bets to him," Severus whispered in her ear as they exited the magical tent Hermione just absolutely loved. "He's got debts to some goblins."

She grinned up at him after looking at the man in the yellow and black Quidditch robes with a large picture of a wasp on the chest. "How would you know that, darling?"

"A little bird told me," he had his mischievous look glittering in his eye. "Might want to go warn your twins." They were counting out galleon, sickles, and knuts they had pulled out of two pouches.

"Oh!" Hermione went to them as Severus followed her like he had since they had left the Burrow. Harry's eyes following them all the way.

"Prime seats," said the ministry witch at the entrance to the seat booths to Arthur, "Top box! Straight upstairs Arthur, and as high as you can go."

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in a rich purple Hermione liked, admiring the color as they slowly filtered through the doors into the stadium with Severus and her being in front of the other Weasleys as Arthur lead them in. The Weasley children had all kept their distance from the Potions Master, after all having given her looks as if she was going mad. With the exception of Bill, Charlie, and Percy. She had just smiled at them. At last, they reached the top of the tall staircase, and they found themselves in a small box set at the highest point of the stadium, situated right between the two gold goalposts. They situated themselves into the rows in front, shuffling past a tiny huddled figure that had it's head in it's hands. Hermione looked down to a seen which she had never imagined.

The blood rushed to her head, and her heart beat faster, "Oh, Merlin." She grabbed ahold of the rail and stopped walking for a moment as Severus' hands found her waist, guiding her down into her seat next to Harry as he sat on her other side next to Mr. Weasley. " _Why_ did we agree to this?"

 _It's just so high…_

Hermione's body suddenly got hot and flushed as she thought about how many stories it would take to fall down before she stopped screaming, Severus talked in her ear as she took off her gloves. "You won't fall over girl, I'll be right here. Plus, they have protective charms around the stands so the blugers can't get in."

She grinned up at him, "I can still see down." She felt a hand grab her own from her left side.

"Alright 'Mione?" Harry asked, having remembered the day that she almost broke down in first year hovering over only a foot off the ground.

She turned to him squeezing his fingers, hearing the drums start and seeing the little house elf behind them being trembling, "I'm fine."

She didn't see Severus looking at their twined fingers intently. "Are you alright, darling?" she asked the elf.

The tiny thing looked up to Hermione through it's fingers, who she saw was a girl house elf, and saw she was talking talking to her and placed her fingers' down to her lap. Blinking tearily as she twined them around themselves nervously. "Is yous' talking to me Miss?"

Hermione smiled at her kindly, "Yes. What's your name?"

"Winky Miss." She seemed confused as to why she was talking to her, tears escaping her big brown eyes.

Hermione turned to Severus, asking if he had a handkerchief, and turned back to Winky with a kind smile, holding it out to her to take, "My name's Hermione, Winky." She shook the white square slightly for her to take it, "Are you afraid of how high we are up?"

Winky wiped her cheeks, her trembling subsiding slightly as Hermione distracted her. "Yes, Miss. Hermy."

Hermione giggled slightly at the nickname, "It's alright. There are charms around us to keep you from falling down."

Hermione turned back to the game as the Minister for Magic entered the box and began introducing Harry to the Bulgarian Minister; Ludo Bagman and the Malfoy family entering behind them and taking their seats on the other side of Severus. Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it out his throat and said " _Sonorus!"_ and then spoke over the roar of the sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming over into every corner of the stadium: "Ladies and gentlemen… welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

 _And let the games begin…_

Hermione flinched slightly as everyone screamed and clapped around her, thousand of flags waving in the air as their screams turning to discordant national anthems.

Hermione shook her head as the boys stopped in their tracks to watch a group of veelas float past the tent, chuckling and rolling her eyes as dejected looks fell onto their faces when they went by without a glance towards them. Veelas were incredibly beautiful with their moon- bright shining skin and pin straight white- gold hair that found some way to float behind them without any wind to keep it up. Hermione was envious of them, and although her face didn't show it, the man coming up behind her saw the slump of her shoulders and her head tilted towards the disappearing girls.

 _She's doing it again…_

Reaching her, he grabbed her hand after checking that it was covered by their robes, making her turn up to him with a quickly appearing smile that shadowed the frown she had before.

"Where is everyone?" He asked her, pulling her into the tent and to the back where a secluded cot no one had claimed sat.

"They're going around, talking, making friends." Hermione told him, sitting beside him and picked up his hand to play with his fingers.

They were quiet for a few moments, content with each other's silence until Severus broke it, "You need to stop thinking like that."

She kept her eyes down though they burned to look up at his face, "Thinking like what?" She knew exactly what he was talking about.

He gave her head of curls a look, placing a hand under her chin and bringing her eyes to his, "Like you're not enough."

Her lips turned up at the corners that spoke nothing of happiness, but gave her a melancholy air to go along with her thoughts. "Do you think I'm pretty, Severus?" She asked in sudden curiosity that was not so spur of the moment, her heart beating wildly in her chest in anticipation of his answer.

He stared down at the girl that had blossomed into just shy of a woman in front of his eyes, and not in the short time noticing how the light hit her eyes in just the right way to make them sparkle. "I think you're beautiful, my girl."

Her smile turned genuine, and she fell asleep on his shoulder with his arm wrapped around her's, the faint jolly music muffled by the tent floating round them. She dreamed of dark eyes, smiling mouths, and crinkled eyes.

When she awoke with a hand shaking her shoulders, she could could hear the music outside had turned to screams and multiple feet pounding their feet furiously outside the tent.

Severus hovered over her bed which he must have placed her in, "They're here," explosions sounded somewhere close by, "We have to leave."

By the light of a few fires that were still burning, Hermione could see people running in all directions from dark robed and bone masked people marching in groups across the campground. Noise like gunfire, loud jeers and roars of laughter followed the group as they added levitating bodies to the ones floating above their heads.

"Is Lucius with them?" Hermione asked Severus as they stepped back into the tent to make way for a hastily passing mother, father, and wailing little boy in various states of dress, those of whom they had watched play with his father's wand earlier that day and give his mother grief when she busted the enlarging slug he had been poking at.

"Yes," he replied, wrapping her shivering form in his large robes as they had to hurry and meet the others and didn't have time to change out of her camisole and shorts. "Draco and Narcissa apparated home right after the game ended."

"Where are we going? Where are the others?" Hermione asked, being pulled this way and that behind Severus as she hastily altered his robes to keep from tripping over them.

"I saw Potter and the others go into the woods, Potter and Weasley tried to come back and get you but Arthur told them I would get you while him, Percy, Bill, and Charlie went to help with the Ministry."

Hermione's adrenaline was pumping throughout her body, and she could feel every pulse point beating in her wrists, and ankles as well as Severus' through the hand she held.

 _I really wish they wouldn't have put an Apparition block on the campsite… people are going to get killed in all this ruckus… But that was the point._

Hermione remembered when the Dark Lord made the decision at the first meeting she had been summoned to...

 _Tom places his wand to his own Dark Mark that marred his right arm, then to Lucius' left, linking him and his Death Eaters once again and summoning them to his side once more. She saw Severus' fingers twitch and she knew his own burned like fire underneath his skin, the grey tattoo spreading with black like their friend's was doing before her eyes._

 _In the next moment, the long dark table they sat at the head of was filled with the Dark Lord's bowing subjects. Hermione knew Lord Voldemort had many followers, but there were only a few select handfuls that could claim a seat at the table and a Dark Mark. Only those of the most loyal of followers could claim that privilege, and Hermione knew she was the only one to have that claim with no Dark Mark due to her position in Hogwarts. There were empty spots between some of the men that Hermione knew people in Azkaban sat, but she wasn't surprised at the few who came to their Masters' call. Many she knew were fathers, and uncles to children currently in Hogwarts, but there were few who did not look familiar but Severus had told her of their names._

" _My friends," Tom spread his arms as if to embrace the Death Eaters as they came up to his seated form, going to their knees in front of him and clutching at his robes with softly spoken 'My Lord's,' lamentations of how lost they were without his direction, and carefully blank and devoted faces. Although Hermione could tell some were shiftier than others and sneered slightly at a repulsive man who sat towards the back of the room as he came to pay his respects and repeatedly licked his lips in that small amount of time._

 _Several of the men had curiously glanced towards the very small figure that stood to the side of Severus who was situated to the right of the man whose hands they kissed, but dared not say a word about the cowled person who was very obviously a woman as she only came up to the Potion Master's bicep. They were not surreptitious enough for Tom's pleasure though as he chuckled, holding out a hand toward Hermione._

" _Come, my dear," her small pale hand extended out of the mock Death Eater sleeve robes, placing it in his cold bony one that had only gotten even more so in the weeks since his resurrection._

 _Her identity would not be uncovered until their whole 'family' was together and united, for her safety and those of whom would be sent out on attacks. The underlying meaning of it all being that he didn't want them facing her in the future and hesitate in fear of their Dark Lord's wrath, or give away her position._

 _All were dismissed, with the exception of the shifty man in the overly large coat whom Hermione already disliked._

" _You will infiltrate Hogwarts as Alastor Moody, Barty," The Dark Lord told the lowly ranked Death Eater, "Severus has been told he has been requisitioned as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the upcoming school year, and you will impersonate him. Severus is trusted by Dumbledore with many things, but him and Moody are old friends, and he will be entrusted with different things than he. Can I trust you with this task, Barty?"_

 _The man threw himself to Voldemort's feet in intimidation of a sycophant, "I live to serve you, my lord. I will not fail."_

 _Tom gave a large sigh as he sat back into his armchair in the library with Hermione and Severus, having given Lucius and Narcissa leave to go to Draco after Barty and departed._

" _Get this makeup off my face," Hermione stepped up and conjured a soft damp washcloth, kneeling in front of him and proceeded to wiping the thin layer of foundation a house- elf had smeared on his face before the meeting off. It had only been but a few months since his relocation into the new body Lucius and Narcissa had found for him, but he was already showing signs of the dead vessel rejecting his soul. It would have been more ideal to have him in another healthy living body, but he had rejected living like a parasite once again like in Quirrell, wanting to be able to control the body he was in._

 _Tom Riddle looked to the girl kneeling in front of her with his red eyes, seemingly to look into her soul as Hermione finished with smearing the stain off his lips. She was a very young girl, he observed her smooth skin framed by little caramel colored ringlets, small pink lips that opened slightly when she breathed, and glittering hazel eyes that held much more knowledge than she shared with him he knew. His eyes flicked to a stoic Severus who stood behind her as always, and his lips curled up slightly but not noticeably. She shared everything with his emotionally closed Potion's Master though. There was something about her that was absolutely charismatic to the man who knew what to look for, and she used it. Evidence of that was him sitting there before her._

 _The first time she presumed to be the one to hold his life in her little hands, he almost wished to close those beautiful hazel eyes forever. Until, she showed her superb intelligence, and utter devotion to her protector behind her. She captured the attention of one of the most powerful men in the world by way of her mind, loyalty, and now her budding beauty._

 _Severus notices how his master runs a finger over one of his girl's loose curls by her cheek, and his hands curled into each other behind his back._

" _It is time to show the wizarding world my influence is not gone with my 'supposed' death." Tom said as Nagini slid into the room and around the girl's feet, the girl who did not once flinch as she slid her scaled body slid across her sandaled feet and dainty black nailed toes. Her second toe was ringed in a simple silver ring._

 _As Severus and her exit the Malfoy's gate to apparate, he had turned to her, "You will learn occlumency."_

 _She had nodded her head, then threaded her arm through his as she knew it was necessary. She had never turned down an opportunity to learn._

"Hermione!" a girl called to her as her and Severus entered where he had seen the Weasleys' and Harry enter. Ginny held onto Hermione's waist in a death grip, and when she looked up Hermione saw the girl who was almost as tall as her had tears running down her cheeks.

"It's alright, Gin," Hermione said into the girl's hair, squeezing her tightly back. Fred, George, Harry, and Ron had all had pale faces as they came up to them, and Hermione hugged them all as Ginny still clung to her like tape, drawing comfort from the only other girl in their little group.

"What do we do now?" Ron asked as they all asked if Hermione was okay, he glanced up to Severus, not quite asking him, but still directing it to his back. The dark man stood watching the burning grounds that was gradually calming down as the Death Eaters seemed to be winding down and apparating out as the Ministry officials started going after them.

It was Hermione who answered him though as she met dark eyes over a shoulder, "We wait." She settled down on a fallen log with Ginny, the adrenaline leaving her system slowly, making her feel jittery and sleepy all at once.

It didn't take long for the camp to become eerily silent, with burning embers crackling in the burned tents sending light sparks into the air and the chanting slowing until that was all that was left.

Harry had sat on Hermione's other side as Ginny still had her arms around the other girl's waist, eyeing the high necked black dress that seemed to be too large for her she had covered her shorts and camisole with. She was looking towards Snape as he glanced down to wear Ginny fisted her hands in the jacket, his eyes moved past the peaked tips of her breasts and turned his head away as he felt his cheeks burn in the cold night air.

"Alright, Harry?" Hermione asked softly, grabbing his hand and smiling slightly when he jumped.

He squeezed her's back, letting his lustful thoughts flow out of his head, putting it all to the fact that his best friend was becoming a pretty girl and he just happened to notice. "Fine, you?"

She nodded, and looked back to where Severus had leaned against a tree and Ron was staring at her, Harry, and Ginny with a slight frown between his eyes. Just as Hermione parted her lips to tell him and the twins to come over, Severus told everyone to quiet their whispers.

A man was staggering to the middle of the clearing with uneven steps and took out his wand as he turned and Hermione saw who it was…

 _Barty…_

"Who is that?" Ron's voice was too loud in the clearing and Hermione came up behind him and his brothers, handing Ginny off to Fred and George who wrapped their arms around her arms and buried her scared face in George's chest as she stuck herself to them now.

"Hush, Ron," Hermione said before going up behind Severus who didn't even have goosebumps from the cold in his thin white button up.

"What is he doing?" She asked, knowing the Dark Lord hadn't assigned him any part in the raid except destruction.

"I don't know," but they found out in the next moment as he cast a spell into the air that conjured massive skull of glittering emerald stars with a snake tongue protruding out of his mouth.

Hermione got a pang in her gut as she saw the Dark Mark lifted in the air, her body filling with a kind of fear that made her heart race for another reason entirely.

Barty's head lifted to the woods they hid in as screams erupted around them and echoed through the air making it seem as if hundreds of hundreds of people were hidden in an echoey castle. His beady eyes roamed over the leaves and trees, seemingly stopping where Hermione and the others hid and smiled ferally. Severus reacted as soon as he knew she had been seen, swiping her in front of him as he turned his back on the other Death Eater and hissed at the others to run towards the other side of the clearing and out into the apparating grounds. They had not gotten two feet from the edge of the forest before twenty wizards surrounded them with wands up and ready to fire, but a few got a little trigger happy and fired ' _stupefy'_ at the group before registering it was children and a professor. Hermione and Severus were to only ones still standing as the others had ducked as soon as they saw the Ministry Witches and Wizards, and Severus reacted by instinct and encircled Hermione in his arms immediately, wordlessly casting _protego_.

" _Stop!"_ A man yelled out from behind the Ministry group, " _Stop! Those are my kids!"_

Hermione briefly put her head to Severus' chest before he let her go and turned to stand beside her instead of shielding her from the idiotic Ministry workers.

"Are you alright, Hermione, Severus?" Arthur asked after he had checked his children; Bill, Charlie, and Percy coming up from behind him.

Severus nodded, looking curtly at the people who had fired at them with his arms crossed. Hermione answered for them, "We're fine, Arthur."

Mr. Diggory was walking back to where they all stood with a limp form in his arms as Barty Crouch Sr. accused them of ridiculous things.

"Winky!" Hermione gasped, bending down to her as Cedric's father placed her down to the ground. Her head was bleeding, and she seemed to be stunned.

She stirred feebly as they rennervated her, her great brown eyes opening and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched silently by the wizards around her, Hermione took a step forward to help her staggering form up. When Hermione touched her elbow she jerked violently, whipping her head up to the not much taller girl. Sighing, she blinked up at Hermione for a moment before sliding her eyes up to the sign above their head and wailed so suddenly and hid her eyes in her hands that Hermione jerked herself, startled by the sound.

Severus put his hand on her shoulder to pull her back a bit, more backing her up with his bigger stature though as he stepped forward when Mr. Diggory started barking at the small elf. Winky began rocking back and forth, her breath coming in sharp bursts as tears ran through her fingers as Barty Crouch Sr. freed her from his service. Hermione could feel a pit of warm anger pooling in the middle of her chest and down to her stomach as he finally asked her what she was going with a wand, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it up to the light of the Ministry Wizard's wands.

"Are you stupid?" She finally asked, silencing the arguing people around her with her question. Arthur and her friends looking to her with surprise plastered over their faces, knowing Hermione to never disrespect an adult in fear of their disapproving faces. But that was the Hermione she put up for the world to see, the Hermione she was now was the one Severus spent his time with, and not in the least surprised at her words as he had been thinking the same thing.

 _I might have influenced her… just a bit… where words are concerned…_

"E-excuse me, Miss. Granger?" Mr. Diggory spluttered, turning to her with wide eyes. "I am- "

"A very ill- mannered and rude man," she finished for him with furrowed brows, her words making Winky whimper and look through her bony fingers up at her, still wailing. "If you had any common sense your ' _member for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures'_ head, you would realize that a house- elf would never willingly pick up a witch or wizard's wand even if they gave it to them. Now..." Hermione ignored the bewildered and insulted faces around her and bent down to Winky, smiling soothingly at her as she pulled her hands away from covering her face. "Would you like to come home with us Winky? We can find a place for you at Hogwarts with Dobby?"

Winky looked up to the nice curly haired girl who had made her feel better earlier in the top of the big box in the air, launching herself and wrapping her arms around the girl's neck as she stood. She blubbered in Hermione's ear, " _T-thank you, M-miss. Hermy!"_

Glaring at Cedric's father who stood flustered with Harry's wand still raised, she deftly plucked it from his loose fingers and pushed it into the bewildered and bespectacled boy's chest, "Don't lose it again, Harry. It is not a toy." He nodded dumbly at her. She turned to the Mr. Crouch who was leading the Ministry group who had his mouth open to no doubt tell she can't take his former elf, but no one tells Hermione Granger not to do something and got away with it. Except Severus whose hand she now grabbed after telling the group, "If you have need of Winky, we will be at Mr. Weasley's home until we depart for Hogwarts." She nodded curtly at them, turning to the aforementioned man smiling brightly after her little put down of the adults around her, "We will see you at home Arthur."

And they spun in a half circle, and disappeared with an almost silent crack; leaving behind baffled adults, perplexed friends, and the two chuckling twins who were exchanging galleons.

 **8.18.18**


	13. 4th Year Part Two

**Chapter 13**

 **A/N: Thank y'all so much for your reviews and those who wished me luck in college! Hope you like this chapter!**

" _Sometimes the strongest women are the ones who love beyond all faults, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles nobody knows about."_

"You can't just take persons of interest away from a crime scene, Hermione!" Percy's ears were a dark red just like Ron's got when he was mad or embarrassed Hermione noted offhandedly as she slammed down a bowl of snap peas onto the table.

"She is not a person of interest! And she can hear you so keep your voice down!" Hermione was at her wits end with the third eldest Weasley boy and his insistent badgering of her as she tried to help Mrs. Weasley put dinner on the table. Since they had gotten back from the World Cup it was as if Percy was her shadow wherever she walked, and at the moment she tripped over him as she went and sat between Ron and Severus who Molly had wrangled into staying for dinner. Hermione gave the redhead a dark scowl so much like the dark man's next to her Harry and Ron shivered, knowing they never wanted that one directed towards them from their best friend and began stuffing their faces.

"Hermione is right, Percy," Molly agreed with her sitting next to Arthur at the long table as everyone had their own conversations placing food onto their own plates, everyone except Severus.

Percy just frowned darkly as some of the boys laughed at him, knowing that the Weasley family matriarch had the last say and that would be the end of it.

"Blimey, Hermione," Charlie said to her, "You're like a mother dragon with her whelps; breathing fire until you get your point across."

Hermione smiled at the charming dragon tamer with all his big muscles and burns, "Thank you, Charlie." She said, suddenly chipper as she picked one of the bloodiest steaks she could find, placing it onto the plate she was holding and sat it in front of the man sitting to her left.

Molly saw this and frowned, knowing Severus didn't take from anyone, "Oh, Hermione-" her voice was drowned out in the din of voices as her eyebrows raised in surprised shock as Severus took the knife and fork Hermione gave him, cutting the steak that had more blood in it than smoke.

 _That is very… unusual…_

For the very longest time, as long as she had known Severus, he had not once ever, taken food from someone if he had not watched them cook it, and Molly speculated that his time as a spy had took it's toll and made him very paranoid. The first time she had tried to give him food for some reason or another, he had taken the plate, and later she had seen it untouched in front of him. Since then, he had taken to watching and helping Molly in the kitchen when he stayed over for dinner as he was to thin in her eyes. It had stricken her as odd that he had not tonight, but hadn't noticed at the time she was cooking as Hermione had taken his place as helper.

Molly's voice got lost in the business of the multiple conversations going on around her, but her eyes were trained on the Professor and her son's friend as they seemed to be holding a conversation of their own through the ruckus of her family. Severus' face seemed to be less severe than usual as Hermione actually smiled up at the dour man once in a while, the sharp lines of his face losing their blank expression into something she wasn't accustomed to seeing on the younger man as he looked down to his tiny student. Even when Hermione turned towards Harry and Ron, Severus' face was turned towards her slightly as he ate his steak, and the curly haired girl's mimicked him unconsciously.

"Alright, dear?" Her husband asked her, settling a hand over her's and smiling.

She smiled back up at him confusedly, not answering his question.

 _They seem awfully familiar with one another..._

~.O.~

"Severus!" Hermione yelled to him as she went to her knees, "Where's my- " She looked up from under the bed to see a pale hand holding a red jumper in front of her face. She smiled gratefully, taking it and his hand in the other to pull herself up. Standing on her tiptoes she kissed his cheek, "Thanks."

Pulling it over her head she slid her feet into leather sandals as Crookshanks rubbed against her legs, "That is the brightest piece of clothing in this house, girl. How do you manage to always lose it?"

She raised an eyebrow at him over her shoulder as they descended the steps, "How does Crooks' bell- toy always seem to find it's way onto the top of the kitchen cabinets when they're too high for him to jump up on?"

Crookshanks meows in her arms as if in assent over his mistress' shoulder, looking at Severus with his slitted green eyes.

She could hear the smirk in his voice as he answered, "I have no idea. He is a Kneazle, maybe he willed it up there."

"Is Barty going to be at the Opening Feast?" She asked him, not exactly enthused with the Dark Lord's idea of putting Barty in Hogwarts, the repulsive man was likely to be even more creepy when she knew he was posing in someone else's body.

"Yes."

 _Dumbledore continues to amaze me with his choices…_

From what she had heard, Hermione was certain that the real Auror was even more unfit to teaching children than Severus was. She had no idea how Severus had caught the legendary man unawares, but let's just say, on the scale of people who could surprise her with their hidden skills, Severus was very low as in her eyes, he was just as powerful as either of his two masters.

"Ron," Hermione scolded the boy as she walked into their compartment and pulling the boy's ugly robes Mrs. Weasley had bought for him off the birdcage. "There you go lovie," she told energetic little Pigwidgeon as he happily chewed on the large treat she had given him, knowing it would keep the baseball sized owl busy for a few hours.

Ron scowled at the cloth in her hands as she sat down, "I don't know why Mum bought those anyway, she won't tell us what they're for."

Hermione smirked, _I know_ , she sung in her head as she examined the red laced robes. "Do you want me to fix them up for you? Make them better?"

Ron looked incredulous, "You can do that?"

Harry gave his friend a look as if saying, _Hermione can do anything._

"Yeah, I've been some practicing tailoring charms. You want to keep the lace?" She grinned mischievously as he scowled once again, holding up a little piece as Harry laughed at his friend's antics.

An hour later Hermione handed Ron dark purple robes that bordered on black, and a solid black vest.

"You're an angel, 'Mione." Ron said as he took them, giving her a tight hug that lifted her from her feet squealing at the suddenness of it, not being used to Ron so touchy. "I still want to know what they're for though."

Hermione's cheeks flushed at the praise, "We'll just have to see."

Hermione sat reading the rest of the way reading a book and listening to her boys talk about Quidditch, occasionally looking up to them and admiring their faces. They had grown up so much since she had first met them. They had both grown to be at least half a foot taller than her or more, Ron had rebelled against his mother and followed Charlie's example and had let his hair grow out longer as his frame grew lean and lanky as Harry's did the same but had started putting on some muscle due to his position as Seeker in Quidditch. Ron cheeks had also somehow seemed to become even more freckles than it already was.

Hermione watched them as Crookshanks crawled on his belly up from her legs to her chest, her heart hurting at the thought of what was coming and knowing that she would do anything for them. But she knew deep down in a place she had yet to acknowledge fully, that Severus was the main reason for everything she did now in the moments she roped the Dark Lord in to her.

Her life revolved around her tall, dark, handsome man, and his revolved around hers ever since they had seen each other for the very first time in her parent's living room and she switched their teacups.

~.O.~

As she laid in bed staring up at the canopy of her bed, Hermione had so many thoughts in her head, all she could do was stare into the darkness and map out the folds in her curtains.

She made a list in her mind.

 _The Dark Lord had been resurrected, by her own singular actions and plannings, and nobody knows that he is alive once again. Directing his Death Eaters._

 _She was subtly maneuvering that part of him that was still human, and not a megalomaniac sociopath who wants to rule the world. She is making him care for her, and trying in the process, to see if there is anything worth saving but knows it will be unfruitful because he had already signed his death warrant if anyone were to find out that he was still alive and breathing._

 _She had suggested that since Barty Jr. would be another spy in the presence of Dumbledore, he could put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, and show him the path to victory, and death without Dumbledore's knowledge of him being the one to pull the strings until it was too late. The Dark Lord instructed Severus to keep an eye on everything, and pay careful attention to how the Headmaster reacted to Harry's name being put into the Goblet._

 _Her and Severus were stuck in a circle that will keep going round until their master is done, truly dead, and his ashes feed the earth. And it is her fault because she helped bring back the most dangerous wizard the wizarding world has had since Grindelwald._

 _And…_

 _Hermione is too bloody smart that it blinds her to the fact that she doesn't have to solve everyone's problems, but she has to solve Severus' because she is realizing that maybe, just maybe, she doesn't have just a schoolgirl crush on him, but she can't do anything about it since he has known her since she was a little girl._

 _Life and death, love or affection… it was all so complicated._

The boys were going to be a handful without Quidditch, Hermione suddenly remembered thinking at the feast. Her mind turned itself over to her two best friends, not wanting to think about what this year would entail for them.

Hermione had looked to her messy haired best friend as he talked to Ron, he turned his green eyes to her as he caught her looking and gave her a smile. She felt the corners of her lips turn up, but it felt foreign to her now to smile at Harry as if nothing was wrong. But everything would be okay. It would. Hermione had glanced up to the High Table, stopping on Severus for a moment before resting on their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had stopped eating in favor of drinking from his hip flask. She flicked them back to the man who was now staring at her, and her mouth turned up once again. But it was real this time.

Everything would be okay. Severus would make sure she was safe. She would make sure Harry was safe.

Her eyes closed as weariness set in, wondering if her professor was sleeping alright.

" _Come to me, Hermione." Tom gestured to the side of him._

" _Yes, my Lord?" She sat on the edge of the light sofa, her knees turned towards him with her hands sat primly in her lap._

 _He stroked her cheek, "Will you play something for me?"_

 _She smiled at him, staying very still until his hand dropped. She got up, her robes whispering along the floor around her cold bare feet. She sat at the black wooden bench behind the baby grand piano, placing her hands upon the appropriate keys and filling the study with beautiful music._

" _Lovely," Tom whispered, closing his eyes to the tune._

 _Hermione's eyes met Severus' in the dark corner in which he stood._

~.O.~

Mad- Eye Moody entered the room, magical roaming eye, missing nose, wooden leg, and all. His rough years in the Auror profession had made him substantially more grizzled and frightening than Hermione had seen, including Fenrir Greyback who was halfway to a full werewolf. It gave her an odd feeling to know that it was really someone else in his body, and it made her wonder if it was just because she knew Barty was posing as him, or if she was feeling for the real Moody wherever he was as it couldn't be pleasant.

Harry and Ron grinned stupidly at their new fierce looking teacher as he starts barking about curses, Hermione rolling her eyes at them, and brings out a glass jar from inside a drawer in his desk. Inside were three large, black spiders scuttling around the small container. Ron recoiled from where he sat in front of Hermione, next to Harry from his arachnophobia. Moody reached inside the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in his palm for everyone to see it's white spots on it's back.

He then pointed his wand at it, and said, " _Imperio!_ " in a gruff growl.

The spider left his hand on a fine thread of silk, and began to swing back and forth as though on a trapeze. It stretched it's legs rigidly, did a backflip, and broke it's silken chain to land on the desk and proceed to do a few cartwheels. Their professor lifted his wand, and the small arachnid rose to it's hind legs to entertain them with a little tap dance, prompting the class to break out into giggles and laughs.

But Hermione remained silent as Moody's eye scanned over them, lingering on her for a few seconds, and then back to the helpless animal. She knew what would eventually come, and she didn't like it done to an animal any more than a person.

Moody barked at the children around Hermione, admonishing them for being amused at the spider's dance before asking them for another Unforgivable. Several people put their hands into the air, including Neville to Hermione's surprise as he never raised his hand in class except in Herbology, but she kept her's laying loosely on the wood of their shared desk.

"Mr. Longbottom," Moody called on her friend, looking to the register for his name.

"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse," the round- faced boy had a queer undertone to his voice as he gave his answer. Hermione was further tickled as she saw her friend's hands clench until they turned white as the spider's legs bent into it's body, and started to twitch horribly as it rocked from side to side. Neville's eyes were also open so wide it was a wonder he didn't have blood vessels popping from them.

"Neville," Hermione whispered, resting her hand on his arm, making him tense even further. She tried to sooth him in vain, but he continued to stare as Moody continued to torture the little spider. No one was laughing now. " _Stop!"_

Hermione saw everyone look to where she sat, not used to their resident nice- girl bookworm talking to a teacher in such a way. Moody said nothing until he asked for the third Curse as Hermione slid her hand into Neville's that grabbed ahold of it as if it was a lifeline for the rest of the class. She saw Harry glance back at them worriedly a few times, meeting Hermione's eyes once and she smiled the smile he knew was her _don't worry I'll take care of it_ smile.

When Moody released the class Hermione coaxed a still shaking and out of it Neville up as the other's filed in front of them and out the door, Harry and Ron hovering there waiting.

"Alright, Mr. Longbottom, Ms. Granger?" Moody stood in front of them, one eye focused on Hermione, the other on Neville who flinched when he saw their professor standing before them as if he was Professor Snape. His grip tightened on Hermione momentarily.

"Alright, sir." He said in a horrible attempt to sound cheery, he let go of Hermione and almost fell in his haste to pick up his bag up off the ground and practically ran past the boys.

Hermione picked up her own bag as Moody watched her, "Have a good day, Professor." He said nothing as his eyes followed her in a rare moment of stillness from his magical one.

She smiled at the boys as they walked down the stairs, and seeing Neville looking out a window ahead she turned to them and allows them to pass in front of her, "I'll meet you guys later, I'm going to talk to Neville."

"'Right," Ron said, continuing down as his mind is only on the food awaiting him in the Great Hall, but Harry hesitated as he saw the look on their friend's face.

"I can handle it Harry," she said, hugging him as his arm goes around her waist briefly. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine," he told her, faking a smile that she saw right through as he marveled at how he never noticed how tiny she was.

Hermione walked Neville to the greenhouses, helping him tend to the various plants until he decided to talk. It took awhile, but he eventually did.

"Do you know why my Gran raises me?" His voice was small as he looked down, pulling the petals off of a rose. "Why my parents don't?"

"No." She kept her voice soft.

He sniffed, trying to hide his watery eyes from her. "Bellatrix Lestrange used the Cruciatus them. Now they live in St. Mungos."

Hermione said nothing as she saw a tear run down his cheek, blinking to get rid of her own. They stayed in the greenhouses for a while longer until it got to be dusk, and decided it was time to head back. Thoughts swirling around Hermione's head as she told Neville she wouldn't tell anyone his secret, knowing some people needed their own secrets that would stay that way.

 _I have my own secret or two, one people would think me crazy for having..._

Hermione sighs as plops down onto the crimson sofa beside Harry, asking him where Ron went off to.

"He gave up on our Divination homework," he said, waving vaguely toward the coffee table in front of their knees where his and Ron's papers were strewn over. "How is Neville?"

Hermione slid her arm through his, kicking off her shoes and bringing them up to rest beside her as she answered, "He's feeling better. Just a little shaken up." She puts her head on his shoulder, staring into the fire, and after a few quiet minutes she asks him the question she knew she would have to ask since she learned they were going to be shown the Unforgivables.

 _Seems like I'm going to be Mother Hermione today, looking after my boys._

"Are you really okay?" She asked tentatively. She felt his jaw tense from where it rest on top her head.

"It's like a series of pictures and sounds that flash through my mind sometimes, not like when the dementors fed off of me though. When they did that, I was living it all over again. It's just like looking at a camera's picture roll, it's all detached when I'm seeing my mom die, over, and over again in my dreams. And I can't do anything about it." His voice steadily got softer until it was just a whisper as Hermione lifted her head to look at his profile, grabbing his hand he squeezed onto it much like Neville had done. "Do you know what the worst part of it all is?" He looked down to her with sad green eyes, "I can only love the idea of them being my parents, I don't have any memories of them to know what it felt like even having them as my parents."

Hermione's heart was breaking for her best friend, even more than it did for Neville. She wasn't surprised he wasn't the one breaking down since everything he had said, made complete sense. You can't love someone, truly love them, if you have no memories of them except the one of them leaving you.

She untangled her arm from his and somehow ended up sitting between his legs as she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his messy hair, trying not to cry.

"Does that make me a bad person?" he asked, his arms tight around her torso showing maybe he wasn't as put together as she thought.

 _Now didn't that sound familiar..._

Hermione pulled back chuckling waterlily, putting her forehead to his and she closed her eyes. "There are so many bad people in the world, Harry, and you certainly aren't one of them."

From what Harry could see of the girl in his arms, the firelight flickered over their close faces and the tears clinging to her eyelashes. And in that moment, he acted impulsively, not out of the type of attraction one would normally feel in this situation, but out of the need to feel something other than sadness or pain for once.

Hermione felt a soft, hesitant brush of lips across her own, asking for permission. She tilted her head up and pressed them together more firmly in a proper, closed mouthed kiss. She understood what he was doing, and she needed it from someone too, someone she could actually kiss without it feeling as if they were doing something wrong if it were to find out. It wasn't a passionate thing between them, but a comforting act that showed that they could help one another through everything they knew would come.

They pulled back from one another panting softly, feeling as if there was a weight lifting from their shoulders. They understood one another.

Hermione stayed situated in his lap, resting her head back on his shoulder once more, yawning sleepily. "I love you, Harry. I won't leave you."

Harry chuckled lightly, placing a kiss to her hair, "I love you to, 'Mione."

Brother and sister came to an understanding.

~.O.~

 _The Dark Arts pertains to a wide range of charms, spells, and most commonly, the three Unforgivables..._

"Blast Ended- Skrewts, Severus," Hermione said deadpanned, holding up a burn on her palm as she looks up from his book that sat in front of her, laying on her stomach in his large bed, "Damn, Blast Ended- Skrewts." She runs a finger over the smooth numb skin.

Going over to his desk he takes an oval tin out then bends in front of her and takes her small hand with his long fingers, spreading burn paste over it as he unconsciously strokes her wrist with his other thumb.

 _It was amazing how one small touch…_

Hermione could feel her cheeks heat as she adjusts her stomach and crosses her feet up in the air behind her.

"Why are you reading these?" He asks as he pulls the book out from under her forearms.

"Why do people normally read, Sev?" She cocks her eyebrow at him in imitation of his signature move.

He raises his back to her that severely outdoes her's as he bends down on his heels, resting his face on the edge of the bed in front of her, making their noses about an inch apart. "You can't even see the printed words underneath my, _scribble,_ as you put it."

She smiled with all her pointed fangs on display as she giggles, "You only _scribble_ in your research as you have so many thoughts going around in that big brain of yours that you just _have_ to get them out. And I like seeing into your mind, it helps me understand you better." She moved over to make room for him on her other side.

He was quiet for a moment as he got up and lay next to her for a while, playing with her fingers.

"Did you know about Neville's parents?" She asked him, breaking their normal comfortable silence as she traces patterns on his palm.

He looks to her from where he stared thinking up at the canopy, "He told you?"

She nodded, "Barty did the Unforgivables in class, and he didn't respond well."

"I wouldn't think so. No, I wasn't with them that day."

She said nothing else until she sat up, smiling and asking if she could practice her Legilimency.

He stayed perfectly still as she took his face in her tiny hands, whispering " _Legilimens!"_

He could still feel her mind brush up against his own as she shuffles around for a memory she wanted, flashes of his memories going in front of his eyes as if from a camera roll. It would take time for her to get as good as him, but she was determined.

She always liked the feeling of being in the calm of his memories. Felt how it would be as if she were floating in the sea without getting wet, as if the tranquil place could shift in a moment's notice as a monster lurked beneath.

 _He looks down to a little curly haired girl that was more the height of a girl almost half her age than her own. Her little lips turn up into a brilliant smile as she sees his eyes upon her. He feels confused._

 _Severus' heart does a thud, thud, thud, thud thud. The sound of his blood rushing to his head as he sees the single girl, person, he has cared for in the world wipe away makeup from the Dark Lord's face. He touches her with a look so close to admiration that his heart slows and feels as if it would stop, knowing she was really and truly attached to his first master._

Severus decides it is time to test her defenses, and is met with substantial resistance, but ultimately breaks through.

 _She looks to the dark man she had come to love, watching how he cuts his potions ingredients deftly with a small silver dagger. He is always relaxed when he is working, and it makes Hermione smile as he looks up to her from his hands and gives her that smile she loves so much. She's never seen him look at anyone else like that before._

 _Hermione's hands card through his beautiful black hair that felt like raw silk sliding through her fingers. The thick black strands the softest thing she had ever touched. She watched them shine with his natural oils as opposed to what other people thought was grease._

"I have to tell you something, Severus," he heard her say out loud, "I don't want you to see it and make the wrong conclusions."

 _But as she says this, he glimpses flash of messy black hair and green eyes staring at her in her mind, their faces very close together._

His eyes lower she sees, but she kisses his nose, bringing his eyes back up to see her sad smile. She felt the brief anger and sadness from him when he had seen Harry's face, and she knew exactly how he felt. She had felt the same when she had seen Lily in one of his memories.

"He's like my brother, Severus," she told him, but she could see him closing himself off from her right before her eyes.

"A brother you kiss?" he said scoffing, sitting up looking as if he was going to storm out, but wanting an explanation.

Hermione felt the swellings of panic beginning in her chest and fought not to start blurting out the first things coming to mind, or start bawling at the thought of him leaving her for good. Jumping hastily off the bed to stand before him where he had put his legs over the side of the bed, she told him to look in her mind in the deep, deep place she had locked the few memories she hadn't intended on showing him just yet. Or ever.

 _The nightmares started it all. He told her about Lily, and she couldn't discern thought of her Severus belonging to someone else. Even if it was only one sided and the girl had never looked at him that way. The next morning, after he had told her this long kept slight and they fell asleep in his bed, she sat on the bathroom floor after casting a Muffliato around the room. The tears fell silently._

 _She fell into a sadness the next few days, and thanked the gods it was the days Severus had to go out and tend to the Dark Lord's needs. She couldn't let him see her like this. She didn't know why she was even crying in the first place._

Hermione allowed Severus to break the connection between their two minds, and she didn't know what he was thinking. She didn't touch him. The quiet wore on, and on, and on, until Hermione decided to break it, but Severus' quiet question brought relief to the tense atmosphere.

"It was, just comfort then?" he finally asked, and Hermione's tense body unclenched a bit. He looked exactly how she had felt when she had her little breakdown, and she was glad to see she could actually see that and not the stone mask he reserved for others.

"It was." Her voice was hesitant Severus could hear, and he got a pang in his heart to hear it. She had never, ever, since he had first met her when she was eleven, been hesitant around him. And he hated it.

Reaching out to grab her hands that were twisting around one another, her eyes flitted up from where she watched their movements.

"You are an amazing girl, Hermione, and I have no idea why you feel the way you do about me. I have done nothing to deserve it."

"You have a very low opinion of yourself, Sev." Her voice was quiet, not knowing where this was going. She ran her thumb over his knuckles.

"You have this uncanny ability to be loyal to about any, and everyone. Even if they have given you no reason to." She smiles less hesitant at him now, so he puts his large palm over her delicate cheek.

 _She is a girl who accepts everyone and anyone, and likes to look into murderers minds as if they were books. The dark men allowing it, and giving away their power freely as if it were words._

 _It takes a very special witch indeed._

 **A/N: Review!**


	14. 4th Year Part Three

**Chapter 14**

 **A/N: Hope you guys like this chapter! Only three more left for 4th year after this one, and thank y'all so much for the awesome reviews!**

" _Someone who can stimulate my mind and curiosity by engaging me effortlessly with the collision of our essences and natural chemistry."_

Compared to Hogwarts' own Headmaster, the Head of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were both much more imposing than Dumbledore. But then again, that's how he likes us to think. Madame Maxime, the vertical size of Hagrid, was very commanding all on her own as the woman clad in her beautiful black velvet lead her small sea of powder blue students up to their castle. Karkaroff though, did not seem to hold the same overwhelming personality as the french woman, but he did seem to have the same cold eyes as the other Death Eaters he had turned his back on. Severus had called him a very unlikable man, and Hermione saw that in his grating fruity voice even as she admired how handsome he was in his black and silver robes to match his salt and pepper goatee and white hair.

If anything, the Quidditch playing Head- Boy that walked beside him was more frightening and manly than his Headmaster. Prominent nose and thick eyebrows aside, he had large muscles to go along with his long legs, and he wasn't bad too bad to look at even if he was a bit shorter than Hermione was used to.

Hermione cocked her head to the side, exasperated with herself.

 _I seem to have a thing for older men…_

"For heaven's sake, Ron. He's only a Quidditch player," Hermione snarked to him, already irritated with his fawning over the guy as they walked back up to the castle. She moved past him into the Great Hall where the other schools seemed to have already spread out between the tables, blue sitting more at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, there were odd ones spreading to Gryffindor and Slytherin who had more red and fur than any other. Hermione sat next to a girl with long silvery blonde hair that fell as long a Hermione's, and when she turned to her with deep blue eyes the color of the sky, she could see the girl was clearly part veela.

"'Ello," the girl said to Hermione who smiled at her.

" _Bonjour, my name is Hermione Granger,_ " she told the veela in french, holding her hand out as the boys gaped at her and the girl as they sat on her other side.

" _I am Fleur Delacour,_ " she gripped Hermione's hand as her eyes lit up, " _It's nice to meet someone who knows french so well here! I was afraid of not making any new friends since my english is not so good._ "

Hermione smiled as she passed her the bouillabaisse, " _My father's mother was french, but I haven't practiced in a while. I could help you if you want?_ "

Fleur's laugh resembled the tinkling of bells, " _Deal._ "

"I didn't know you spoke French, 'Mione," Harry told her as him and Ron walked behind her, the students all making their way to the Entrance Hall to make for bed.

"Where is he?" Ron interrupted her answer, looking over Slytherin heads to find the man he had been still been going on about.

Harry apologetically looked at her, knowing she was getting prickly with their other friend and his obsession. Hermione rolled her eyes over her shoulder, not noticing Harry's eyes widen as she stepped out in front of the Durmstrang Headmaster who then bumped her back into the teacher who had just stepped up to hasten the children forward. The Durmstrang boy beside him had reached out towards her at the same time as well, looking to Hermione who blushed under the scrutiny of his black eyes so alike, but so different from the man's behind her.

Karkaroff turned to her snarling, " _Watch it girl!_ " His face turning just a shade paler as he saw Severus holding Hermione's arm, his eyes lingering over to the boy with the scarred forehead beside her for a long moment.

"Igor," Severus drawled, bring the Headmaster back to look at him. "If you wouldn't mind taking you students to your ship? Hogwarts has a curfew."

Karkaroff nodded to the much more imposing man, having turned even paler at the cold tone of his voice and nodded to the boys behind him to follow. Viktor Krum let go of Hermione's arm, looking back once he had got to the corner of the hallway. She looked up as she felt another gaze on her cheek, feeling a different kind of flush go into her cheeks at this one.

"Go on Miss. Granger, we don't have all night."

Hermione smiled, hesitantly, ducking her head for a second before meeting his eyes once again which flicked to Harry who nudged her to to get going.

"Goodnight, Professor."

Although things between the two of them had been tense for a few weeks, they still seemed to have their close relationship that was blessedly free of uncomfortableness. But the atmosphere was thicker than if used to be, and Hermione for a few odd second wished she and Harry had not shared that moment between them, then berated herself for thinking that in the first place. Their friendship had changed considerably as well, coming to the understanding they would always be there for each other, and talk about anything without judgment.

Severus nodded as he swept away, Hermione wishing she could follow him down to his lonely dungeons and clasp her hands around his waist like she used to without these conflicting thoughts swirling in her head.

The newly decorated Great Hall rang with laughter and Fred and George both sprouted long thick white beards that hung down to their waists, their's the loudest of all as Lee helped them to their feet, howling as well. Few people had tried to cross the age line and put their name into the fiery Goblet of Fire, and each walked away the same way no matter if they were pushed into the line by their friends or no. Giggling between the two boys, Hermione waved back to Fleur as she put her own name into the Goblet on a pale blue parchment paper.

"Close your mouth, darling," Hermione tapped Ron's chin lightly as he followed Fleur's steps back to one of the pushed back tables of the room.

"Look at how she walks," he said breathily, his ears turning as red as his hair as she and Harry smirk at him. Hermione shook her head as she tried not to stare as the Durmstrang boys entered their names. All in all, they were all just terribly masculine.

 _And the thin film of dark magic that clung to them made them seem that more imposing…_

 _And interesting..._

Hermione didn't think anyone else felt it though, it was probably just her since she spent so much time around Severus. Her magic automatically feeling the difference.

The hall buzzed with excitement as they finished their feast, the plates disappearing into the kitchens as Dumbledore stepped up to stand beside the pedestal the Goblet resided upon.

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside Hagrid's large pumpkins floating high above their heads extinguished, plunging the hall into semi- darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone brighter than anything in the Hall, the bright sparkling blue- white light of the flames burning everyone's eyes and making them water. Hermione felt her heart jump to her throat in sudden anxiety as she saw her classmates, and two best friends start to whisper excitedly across the table from each other as Dumbledore took another step forward. Her eyes found Severus' in the dark, knowing exactly where he would be standing even if he was mostly shrouded in shadow from the rest of the people around him.

 _Gods, please let him live through this year… let us all live through this year..._

Hermione felt shaky and nauseous, but Severus' eyes willed her to calm herself, and everything would be fine. She closed her eyes briefly, slowing her breathing to not go into a panic attack when the last name was called.

 _Fear cuts deeper than swords… Calm as still water… calm as still water… all will be well..._

Hermione's eyes opened, her shallow breaths slowed as her body got a chill from fingertip to toe, and the first name was called as Dumbledore caught a piece of parchment, " _Victor Krum!_ "

The flames inside the Goblet turned red once again as the second tongue of flame shot another piece of parchment out in sparks, " _Fleur Delacour!_ "

Hermione clapped once again and smiled at Fleur as she practically floated past their table, closing Ron's mouth once again as he began drooling unattractively as the Half- Veela waved to them. The Hogwarts champion was next, and Hermione felt her shoulders tense up once again, not ready to see people's reactions in the next few minutes… "And the Hogwarts Champion, _Cedric Diggory!_ "

Every single Hufflepuff managed to find their way to their feet in the crowded hall and touch some part of the boy as he made his way to the chamber behind the teacher's table where the other Champions had disappeared to.

Dumbledore began a grand speech Hermione was sure, but was soon interrupted by a fourth finger of fire reaching out from the Goblet to throw another name into the competition of life, death and skill. Hermione's tears threatened to tear down her meagre Occlumency shield as the name echoed in the silent hall…

" _Harry Potter."_

Every head in the Hall turned to where they sat alongside the other Weasley children who looked as dumbfounded as Harry certainly felt underneath his shocked mask. There was no applause, but a buzzing had filled the silence that had penetrated the walls around them as if bees had filled the rafters.

Hermione flicked her eyes towards Severus once again for a brief moment as Harry said in a faint voice, as if unaware he was speaking at all, " _But I didn't put my name in…?"_ He sounded so much like the eleven year old little boy she had first met years ago.

Dumbledore called once again to Harry as the noise around them grew louder, Professor McGonagall stood beside him where they waited for a shell shocked Harry to come to his senses.

Hermione touched his arm for him to look at her without really seeing her, his eyes pleading with her as if a child to his mother to make everything alright again.

"You need to go up, Harry."

Hermione watched as he disappeared behind the door to meet the other Champions with a heavy heart, Severus' flowing robes bringing up the end of the Headmasters' exit into the back lounge.

 _Please, please, please… give him the strength to get through this year._

"Gods, Severus," Hermione paced in front of him, wearing a hole in his fuzzy gray rug as Crookshanks tries to circle them as she walks. Meowing up at his Mistress in concern. "What did we do? What have we done? We put the idea of putting Harry's name in the Goblet to the Dark Lord? _I_ gave him the idea… He can't get through this, he's just a boy, just an innocent boy- " Hermione clutched the hair on the side of her heads with both her hands, almost pulling it out as her chest grew tight.

"Hermione," he caught her by her shoulders to stop her increasing worry, "You know good and well we had to. We had to find a way to get him out of the castle, and this was it. This had to secure our spot in the Dark Lord's circle. This is it. You said it yourself."

"I said it myself," Hermione repeated vaguely, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Calm yourself now," He told her, wiping them away, "Everything will be fine as long as we are together, and we stick to the plan. We cannot allow our emotions to get in the way."

"No," she agreed, finally calming down.

"Now, Dumbledore and the other schools should be done with Potter," he hinted at her to go to her friend, knowing she wouldn't calm completely until she talked to her friend.

Hermione nodded silently, looking down at the floor and drifting out the door, leaving an orange fluff ball and a dark spy to stare at one another.

Severus sighed as Crooks meowed up at him in question, shaking his tail lazily on the floor behind him as he stared up at the tall man with golden eyes.

"Go look after her, beast."

The beast meowed once more in assent, leaning against black trousers and leaving behind a dusting of orange gold hairs.

With every Gryffindor that currently resided in the school crammed into the common room, all the noise and music and bodies made Hermione even more claustrophobic and irritated than usual. Especially with Ron sulking next to her in the corner they were huddled into.

"You saw how Fred and George ended up when they tried to cross the age line, Ron." She told the redhead, feeling the beginnings of a headache come along. The boy just could not get it round his thick head that even if Harry had wanted into the competition, he wouldn't have been able to do it himself. "It just isn't possible for Harry to put his own name in the Goblet. He would have ended up with a beard as long as Dumbledore's!"

He stayed the way he was, his arms cross his chest leaning against the stone wall behind them. He hadn't said a word once she started defending Harry almost half and hour ago when she entered the common room after coming up from Severus' chambers. Hermione huffed as yet another person bumped into her legs, jumping a bit when an abnormally ruffled Crookshanks leapt into her lap with a disgruntled look on his face.

"He here Crooks?" She asked the half- kneazle, knowing he wouldn't have crossed the throng of unobservant teens just to meow at her. Hermione ran her fingers in between his soft downy fur, flattening it where it had ridged against his spine. Ron look warily at the cat she saw in the corner of her eye, and knew it was because he knew Crookshanks didn't appreciate him very much since he had been particularly uncaring of him in regards to Pettigrew last year.

Yells and cheers answers Hermione's question, and she stood with the Kneazle clutched to her chest to put him on the boy's dormitory steps so he wouldn't get trampled. Waiting a few minutes for everyone to get their questions out of their system even though she knew Harry wouldn't appreciate it, she finally pulled Harry away from the grasping hands to pull him up to the empty dormitory.

"You couldn't have helped a half- hour ago?" Harry asked her, sounding as irritable as she felt as he pulled off a Gryffindor banner Lee Jordan had insisted on draping around his shoulders like a cloak.

Sitting on his bed cross- legged, Hermione waited for Crookshanks to shift onto her lap from where he had been laying on Harry's pillow to answer.

"If they hadn't gotten to you now they would have later on, it was best if they had gotten it out of their systems."

Harry changed out of his school robes into pajama pants, lying down next to her with his head next to Crooks' where it sat heavily on her thigh.

"You don't think I did it do you? Ron does, he wouldn't even talk to me after saying _congratulations._ Like I want to be going into yet another thing that could get me killed." He said, his voice bitter.

Hermione ran a hand through his messy hair, looking disapprovingly at his ribs that jutted sharply out from his torso, evidence of his many years of neglect from the Dursleys.

 _Like Sev's…_

"Of course I don't think you did, Harry. If anyone had seen the look on your face when your name was called they wouldn't have thought you had entered your name either. Ron, though, it should be obvious why he's acting this way." Hermione felt a familiar pang in her gut, similar to the one she had just an hour ago.

"Not to me."

"He's jealous." Seeing the incredulous look on his face she smiled faintly, barely the corners of her mouth lifting. "It's always you who gets the attention, Harry. I know it's not your fault," she pulled his hair slightly as he scowled and opened his mouth, "but he's the baby boy of his family and has to compete with his brothers and Ginny at home, and you're already famous. He kind of gets pushed to the side, and never says anything about it. I guess this was just another thing to rankle at him, assuming his best friend entered a life changing competition and didn't even tell him he was going to do it let alone get chosen."

He groaned, "Just what I need, to be another _Chosen One._ " They sat in silence for a few moments, Hermione's hand sliding through his hair, him having a staring contest with the slanted eye Kneazle. He spoke up quietly, "I don't want to be a chosen anything anymore. Everyone has all these expectations, and I wasn't even the one to do anything to earn any of it. How am I supposed to even get through this competition? We're in our _fourth year,_ 'Mione. We don't know anything about defense spells, or advanced charms."

This time she laughed, "I do."

He smiled cheekily at her, "Of course you do."

Hermione's eyes started to feel heavy after a while longer, and not long after she made up her mind to go to her own room Ron came in without looking at either one of them and closed his own curtains.

She raised an eyebrow, not commenting as Harry said, "I'm not talking to him," and sighed once more before standing and stretching her hands above her head and leaning down to kiss Harry's forehead goodnight.

"I'll help you learn what you need for the trials, Harry," she told him as his green eyes stared up at her, "But you need to owl Sirius and tell him what's happened before he hears it from someone else and starts worrying and does something rash."

He groans, both from exasperation at his best friend, and the weight of a sleepy kneazle seeking warmth against his chest as he knew his Mistress wanted her friend to be taken care of. Green eyes had another stare down, one pair covered in spectacles, the other half covered by slanted lids.

"Why is she so bossy?" He asks the cat, earning a small paw to the nose signaling he would never find the answer.

~.O.~

"You can't let them get to you, Harry," Hermione told the seething boy as he shoved his things into his bag, eager to leave the potions class and the Slytherins surrounding them.

"I can't help it, Hermione," he huffed, almost knocking a bottle of potions ingredients to the floor if she hadn't caught them, "First Ron, then Snape which is nothing new so I'm not surprised," he shot the former a dirty look as they came up behind him, Dean, and Seamus on their way out the door, "Now, those stupid buttons."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for mishandling of potions ingredients, Potter," Professor Snape called out to them as he passed to walk into the storeroom.

 _Speak of the Devil..._

Hermione sighes, and Draco pushes an already bright red button just waiting to be pressed in the form of a very irritable Gryffindor. She shoots the blond a warning look he ignores.

"Like them, Potter?" Draco calls out loudly, causing many people around them to stop and watch what even they knew would be an ensuing fight. He pressed the button to his chest, as well as the other Slytherins, and green letters floated around them.

 _ **Potter Stinks**_

"Very funny," Hermione drawled at Draco, causing him to raise an eyebrow at how much she sounded like his uncle, " _Very witty._ " She saw Ron out of the corner of her eye, frowning at Draco, yet doing nothing to help his _best- friend._

"Want one, Granger?"

She could see the exact point all the laughing around them and Draco's smirk got to Harry, and when his boiling point went through the roof as he went for his wand. Draco reacted on instinct as did Hermione when they pulled their's out, and sent spells at one another at the same time. But Hermione's was the only one to hit her target as Draco yelps as yellow birds peck at his head and face, Goyle screams and covers his boiled covered nose, and Hermione shrieks in pain and her hands fly up to her head as it feels as if it is on fire.

" _Hermione!_ " Two pairs of hands grab at her to keep her from falling to her knees from the sensation. After a moment the burning fades, and her hair is twice as curly and big as it previously was, and reaches down to tangle around her feet. Hermione looks down to it, and feels the urge to burst out laughing despite how it felt to get it to the length it was now at.

"What is all this noise about?" A soft voice inquired, Severus having heard the commotion outside from the beginning, but not having wanted to get involved until he heard a familiar scream. The girl now looking absolutely ridiculous with her hair the way it was, and he felt the urge to do exactly what her face expressed she wanted to do.

The crowd disperses around them as the Potions Master gives them all a glare telling them to get to class, leaving two Gryffindors, Ron leaving with the crowd after making sure Hermione was okay and avoiding Harry's stare, and three Slytherins. Severus pointed to Draco telling him to explain before sending them to the hospital wing as Draco had cuts from Hermione's little canaries, but they all looked to Harry as he interrupts the professor.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" He said, outraged they got off with nothing, but Gryffindor lost fifty points for _causing a ruckus_ in the hallway and disrupting the learning environment. "Look! He hurt her!" He pointed to the redness around her hairline where it still itched at her.

Severus looked to her with a blank face, "I see no difference. Go to class, Potter. Miss. Granger, come with me, Madame Pomfrey will have enough to deal with with these two." He turns and makes to sweep down the hall.

Harry opens his mouth to make another retort before she puts a hand on his arm to stop him, and then stomps off. Hermione, in her irritation at all the boys around her smirks suddenly as Severus turns to make sure she is following him just in time to see her turn Draco's hair, white as his father's, a bright shade of neon green.

He yelps once again, feeling what Hermione did when her's grew as his elongates to reach his knees.

Severus continues to walk along as if he has seen nothing.

"Missy Hermy!" Winky gasped, pausing in her changing the sheets on Severus' bed as they walked into his chambers, "What happened?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly at the little wide eyed house- elf, holding her hair up in a bundle in her arms, "A little charm gone bad, Winky. Do you mind getting some shears for us, please?"

After conjuring up a pair of heavy silver, Winky retreats back into the bedroom after Hermione thanks her as Severus bids her to stand on a chair. Done with her chores, she stood by the entrance in case they were to need anything else. Potions Master Snape braided Missy Hermy's hair, cutting it off just below her bum he lays the left over rope on the table. Pulling her braid over her shoulder, she grins down at his head.

"At least I don't have any dead ends now, right?" Master Snape runs his long fingers over where the rapid growth had stained the girl's hairline red, and Hermione runs her fingers through his black hair a couple inches below his shoulder. Telling him to sit on the chair she stood on, Winky marvels at how loving the man who is quite taciturn with everyone he talks to except the Mistress.

The Potions Master never let people take liberties with his person, but she was the exception the many things. Especially not bossing him around as she did now, turning his head forward as he tries to look back at her, pulling her down into his lap tickling her into laughing.


	15. 4th Year Part Part Four

**Chapter 15**

 **A/N: Hope y'all like this chapter guys! Reviews are appreciated!**

" _I definitely have a little attraction to bad guys, but they have to sweethearts underneath. After all, I like to be treated well."_

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed, opening the prophet over her plate of eggs. "Be careful what you say to that horrible woman, she's worse on paper than she is in person. And that's saying something."

The boy snorted into his pumpkin juice, "I know, 'Mione. I was stuck with her in a tiny broom closet for an hour."

"Hey-"

"Hermione!" The now standing twins said on either side of her said after wiggling their matching red brows to the blushing boy in front of her after his comment about Skeeter. "Look down- "

"She wrote 'bout you too." Fingers pointed from left and right of her paper, aiming at a particularly long article of the she- devil previously mentioned.

Hermione frowned as she scanned it, getting to the part the twins had already found and were teasing Harry about as she handed it to the boy.

 _Harry has found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle- born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school._

"Do you think I'm stunningly pretty, Harry?" she asked, watching as his cheeks flushed once again, and out of the corner of her eye, saw Ron's ears red as he looked over to them with a strange look on his face.

Her cheek rested on her hand as Harry looked towards her with a smirk and a glint in his eye, "Your beautiful 'Mione, and you know it." He tugs at a curl sitting on her shoulder.

The twins spluttered behind her as her smile gets wider, "Well that's not- "

"Good enough!"

" _We_ think- "

"You're _stunningly_ \- "

" _Gorgeous!_ "

Hermione's nose was then assaulted by the boys' unique scent of cinnamon as her cheeks were both kissed at the same time, long skilled fingers wiggling over her ribs making her squeal and shriek.

"Fred! George!" The red- faced girl laughed, slapping the grinning boys lightly on the arm as she tries so catch her breath, not seeing two pairs of almost black eyes from two different people admiring the pink flush to her cheeks.

"Hey, Kitten," Sirius' head popped up into the fire where she kneeled by in her nightgown, reading a book.

Snapping it shut, she set it beside her and watched as the flames danced across the animagus' face. "Hello, Sirius. Harry should be up soon, he had to go with Hagrid somewhere."

"Quite, right." They were silent for a moment, with Sirius looking around shiftily until he asked the question that had been going around his head since he had talked with Remus months ago. "How did you convince Snape to let me leave with Buckbeak that day?"

Hermione smiled slightly, pulling her hair up into a bun as her neck became damp from the heat of the fire, "I appealed to his sense of humanity," she told him, knowing he wouldn't believe her anyway.

He scoffed, "I didn't know he had a heart, much less a sense of humanity left in him after becoming a bloody Death Eater." He watched her face expectantly, but she gave nothing away.

"That's a very serious thing to accuse someone of."

He had no time to reply as Harry barged in, throwing his cloak beside the couch.

Panting, he falls beside Hermione. "Sirius!"

Hermione allows her best- friend and his godfather to talk, saying nothing until he brings up the Durmstrang Headmaster being a Death Eater, and even then keeping her thoughts to herself. He was meddling in something bringing up Death Eaters in one night, and she knew he was fully aware of that fact as he glanced at her often as he brought up the topic. Severus had informed her of the fact Karkaroff being the one who was responsible for Barty being imprisoned in Azkaban, and to pay attention to their interactions. So far there were many loathing glares exchanged between the two, but she put it off to the current body he currently occupied.

"Dragons!" Harry gasped out suddenly, making Hermione jump from her thoughts.

"Dragons?" Hermione questioned lowly, getting a sinking feeling in her chest.

 _Oh, no..._

"The first task is going to be dragons! That's what Hagrid was telling me about, he took me to the forest to show them to me." He looked to Hermione, "Charlie brought them in."

She pouted, having wanted to see the eldest Weasley boy.

Sirius' flaming mouth opened to remark, but was interrupted by Hermione holding up her hand. "Someone's coming!" She whispered to the two men, hearing a dormitory door open squeakily.

Harry scrambled to his feet, grabbing ahold of Hermione to pull her up to hide the fire behind them, knowing if someone saw Sirius' face within the walls of Hogwarts there would be an almighty uproar. They heard a tiny _pop_ signaling his departure as Ron appeared on the bottom of the spiraling staircase in his maroon paisley pajamas, stopping dead as he saw the two of them. Hermione in her short sleeveless white nightgown, and Harry still holding her hand.

His ears turned red as they always did when he was either embarrassed or angry. "What're you two doing?"

Hermione looked up to Harry whose jaw was locked as he looked to the ground, his hand squeezing her's, "Nothing, just talking." She answered, knowing Harry wouldn't.

"'Bout what?" He asked tentatively, stepping forward.

"Why?" Harry lost his battle with his mouth, sneering, "You won't believe us anyway."

Ron shut down again as he scoffed, "Whatever."

"Harry-," Hermione tried, but gave up as he kissed her temple then went to follow Ron back to his room.

~.O.~

"My brain is bleeding," Harry thumped his head down onto to library table, "And he's staring at you again."

Hermione continued writing, dipping her quill into her ink as she glances up into Viktor Krum's eyes, blushing and writing with new vigor, "Shut up."

"He stares at you. Every time we come in here, he appears out of nowhere, and stares at you." Harry laughs as he watches her face get darker, the parchment crackling louder. He gets up, putting the books on Dragons in his bag. "Go talk to him, he's probably scared of all your hair." He chuckles at her glare, pulling one of her wild curls as he dodges her sharp nails aiming to dig into his arm.

Hermione paused in her work for a long moment, a glaring image lacking facial characteristics popping into her head that looked suspiciously like Severus'. Making her choice, she gathers her things into her arms, and pulling out the chair opposite Viktor who was also surrounded by books as she so frequently was. After spreading out on her half of the table, she smiled at the Bulgarian's surprised face.

"Hello, I'm Hermione."

His look melted away, replaced by a smile as well, "Hello, I'm Viktor," he introduced himself unnecessarily. They both looked back down to their work.

A few minutes of silence goes by until giggling broke through the glances they sent to one another, Viktor's irritated look being unnoticed by the regular group of teenage girls who followed him around.

"Why don't you stay on the ship, or at least study there if they bother you," Hermione asked him, the girls having had distracted her as well until she cast Muffliato around their small alcove.

"Headmaster Karkaroff will not leave me alone," he said in heavily accented and halted english. "And the books here at Hogwarts help me learn English language better."

"What if I agree to help you with your English, and you teach me your language, yes?"

His bright, slightly crooked teeth shone brightly in his dark skin, "Deal."

They shook hands, the bulgarian's eyes flicking behind the girl he had been watching shoulder, seeing a dark shadow blending back into the walls.

~.O.~

Harry had been detached from everyone at breakfast, so Hermione could only hug him tightly as she stood with him in the tent. She knew he was nervous about going up against a dragon, but she probably was even more so for him since she couldn't be by his side in the pit. The noise outside was getting louder and louder as the dragon roars, cheering, and wind all make up a crescendo.

"Hermione," he said sounding a bit strangled, "I can't breathe."

"Oh," she loosened up a bit, but kept ahold of him. "Sorry."

After a moment his tense form loosened up as he squeezed her back around her back, "Hermione." He tried again, "They're going to come in any moment."

She laughed and sniffled some before pulling back to kiss his cheek, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Just remember to keep calm, don't lose focus, and put as much power into the spell as you can."

"I'll be fine," his smile hid his nerves well, but she could see through it from years of reading an unreadable man with a permanent scowl affixed to his face.

She squeezed his hand, "Good luck."

On her way out of the tent she passes Cedric and Fleur, kissing the latter on both cheeks and wishing them both luck as well. Wrapping her scarf under her chin before stepping out of the flapping tent, Hermione steps right into the chest of the last champion who she had yet to see.

"Viktor!" Hermione smiled up at the tall Bulgarian, "I was hoping to see you before you went out." Her cheeks flushed and felt warmer than her mittened hands.

"Hermione," he said in his thick accent, reaching for her hand and kissing the back of it.

Dumbledore stepped into the tent behind them with the other judges and a hissing bag, " _Champions! Gather round please!"_

Quickly Hermione put her hands on the boy's shoulders, bringing him down to her level before kissing his cheek like she had Harry before walking quickly into the cold.

She twists her hands throughout the whole challenge, getting paler and paler beside Ron who stood next to her cheering as each dragon went up against a champion. After each one getting hit at least once, and fire blown out to them by the mother dragons fighting for her babies. She sees a potential disaster for Harry even as he has his broom to escape the line of fire. Her hands are assaulted with half- moon marks, and her heart feels as if it resided in her stomach. By the time Harry was up and done with his Horntail, Ron was as pale as she was and followed her into the tent.

As the boys tried to make- up after their ridiculous fight, Hermione couldn't hold in her tears anymore. She stomps her foot and starts babbling nonsense in their ears as she hugs them briefly before going to calm down.

Finding Viktor on his cot, she was relieved that he only seemed to have a few cuts and bruises, and apparently bruised ribs as he winced when she hugs his around the middle.

"Why are you crying, Hermione?" He asked in Bulgarian, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"I just hate this stupid competition already," she told him in kind. A deep pit of guilt weighed her down as she rested her head on Viktor's shoulder.

 _Harry being in this competition is because of me…_

 _All my fault if he gets killed..._

Hermione looks up to Viktor who smiles at her, "We are all alive, that is what counts." His eyes were black and his hands were rough from years of Quidditch.

 _And I like you, Viktor, but it's not the same..._

~.O.~

She couldn't rap it around in her head.

 _I did this…_

 _This was my design..._

Hermione watched the dust motes make patterns in the light as she sat in the window seal of the library, the one she had picked out years ago when she wanted to be alone. But some people didn't get that need.

"Mione," Harry appeared next to her. "We're going to be late for class."

She had done this before, thought about what she was putting Harry through, and what he would have to be _put_ through.

" _We need his blood, Hermione." Severus told her, his face forlorn. "The Dark Lord needs his blood for the spell to bring him to full health."_

 _She sat in front of him, his words going in to her head, and knocking around for a bit before they sunk in._

" _Oh."_

She loved Harry so much, as much as someone can love a brother, and she didn't want to see him get hurt. But it was unavoidable if she wanted Severus to be safe. She wanted to cry; the chest heaving sobs that shook your whole body, crying. Hugging Harry tightly around the waist, she was becoming aware of how much he was growing into a young teenager.

"You keep crying on me, 'Mione," He said in her ear, wrapping his around her anyway. "What's the matter?"

She sniffled, "I'm sorry. I just love you so much, and I'm just worried about everything with the tasks and your scar hurting again, and the Dark Mark showing up right when it started."

He didn't know what to say, "I love you too."

They stood that way for several minutes until Ron showed up behind them, asking what they were doing. Hermione turns back towards the window, wiping her face as Harry tells him they were just talking.

 _We seem to be using that excuse alot lately…_

She smiled at the both of them, "We're going to be late for Potions now." She avoided Severus' gaze to keep him from seeing her red eyes, and she couldn't help but think for a moment, just a moment, that it was his fault Harry was in this mess. She just wanted to protect him, and in the process put her best friend face- to- face with the man who murdered his parents.

Then the guilt sets in again as she immediately hates herself for thinking something like that.

 _It's Tom's fault, not Severus'... he promised power, and love, and gave only death and madness..._

~.O.~

"Will you go to the yule ball with me, Hermione?" Viktor looked to her with hopeful eyes, the wind around them ruffling the collar around his fur coat.

She smiled at him over her book, closing it while keeping her finger as a marker, "And what else would I get out of it other than the pleasure of your company?" she asked teasingly with a straight face, watching as he picked up an empty glass bottle from the ground beside them.

Pulling out his wand, he transfiguress the bottle flawlessly into a little miniature dragon. Twirling his wand around the little thing for a moment, he gives it to her as it starts moving it's little legs and wings.

"Oh!" Hermione laughs as Crookshanks comes out of nowhere and chases it down the riverbank, the small dragon taking small leaps before testing it's tiny little wings. "Be careful Crooks!" she turned back to Viktor who was smiling at her expectantly, she took his hand, "Of course I will go with you, Viktor."

Crookshanks brings back a slightly squealing glass dragon in his pointy little teeth, dropping it in Hermione's hands and giving Viktor a little glare.

 _You don't smell like Potions Master… why Mistress smell like you and not him?_

They met in a little corner of the castle where no one patrolled anymore due to no classes being in that particular hallway. You would think they would patrol it more since there was no one to stop kids from fooling around there, but Hermione and Viktor took advantage of that.

It was hot and stuffy from their close body heat, and it made a contrast between the cold stone at Hermione's back as Viktor's hands slid her shirt over her head, his hands going to her bare chest. Fumbling lips found each others in the dark that only Hermione could see semi- well in, making their blood pump faster, and faster through their bodies. Viktor lifted Hermione's legs up to wrap around his waist to accommodate their height difference, and his lips skimmed down her neck to suck on her erect nipple. No one had made her feel like this before, no one had touched her this way before rather. The thing was though, in the dark with her eyes closed, she could imagine the rough hands that had slid down her skirt belonged to someone else, and the dark head was that of someone else also. She liked Viktor plenty, his hands especially, but as she roamed her hands over his unclothed back, she wanted something other than smooth planes and muscles to feel.

Their breathing was loud in their little space of the world. Hermione felt like her heart was about to explode as Viktor's skilled hand moved between her thighs, bringing her to a climax like none she could bring herself.

Her eyes opened to meet black ones so similar to another pair, and she was taken aback for a moment.

 _And so very confused about the thoughts going around in her head..._

~.O.~

It was a windy and sleet day outside today, so Hermione spent the day in Severus' quarters curled up next to the fire as everyone stayed in their common rooms by the fires. She played with the little dragon Viktor made her with Crookshanks, sending it back and forth to one another on the carpet. She felt restless as she turned to an equally restless Severus who lay frowning on his couch reading a book ever since she appeared unannounced in his chambers.

Hopping up onto his legs, she makes her way up his body under his book to his bare chest. Staring at him for a few moments, waiting for him to look down to her, she stretches out and put her paws on his nose, and cheeks, and whines.

He sighs and puts his book on the table, "Yes, Hermione?" his wire rimmed glasses were perched upon the end of his nose.

She whines once more before turning back to a human, wrapping her under her chin on his stomach and sticking her feet under his legs. "Why are you ignoring me? Did I do something wrong?"

He takes off his glasses before interlocking his fingers around her back, looking up to the ceiling and collecting his thoughts before answering her. Deciding to be as blunt as he usually was.

"Why are you dating Viktor?"

She smiles strangely for a moment before dropping her eyes and tracing a scar that went halfway around his nipple. She doesn't give an answer to his question, "I was going to break up with him after the yule ball."

"Why?"

She doesn't look him in the eye as she says it doesn't feel right.

~.O.~

"Hey, Hermione."

The whispers of her name were beginning to bug her, her head bent down even lower towards her paper as she wrote faster.

" _Psst!"_

 _Smack!_

"Mr. Weasley," Severus' drawl was heard throughout the study hall. "If you could refrain from opening your mouth for the rest of the hour, or would you rather talk in detention?"

Ron's face turned bright red as it always did when he was angered, and tilted his head down to his parchment. This lasted only five more minutes though, as Hermione predicted.

"Herm-"

" _What?!"_ Hissed from her mouth, looking up into two startled faces.

"You're a girl," he began.

She looked at him blankly, "Very astute Ronald."

He continued like he didn't hear her, "Go to the ball with one of us?" He actually looked kind of hopeful.

"Don't bring me into this," Harry mumbled from beside him, his glasses falling a bit down his nose.

"What? You don't want a date? Your a champion Harry, you have to have a date."

Hermione interrupted them, "I would go with Harry, but I already have a date."

Harry finally looked up with a frown, "Who?"

Ron was getting red again, "Why not me?"

 _Smack!_

"Detention."

Severus smacks both the boys on the head this time as he gives her the look she had known was coming as he overheard their conversation.

"'Mione?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

" _Why?"_

"Quit whining Ron, it isn't going to get you anywhere." They all walked through the portrait hole to giggling girls all looking up to a tiny owl flitting around in circles.

"Hermione," Harry said suddenly, looking down to her mouth, "What happened to your teeth? They're all pointy."

Hermione pulled her hand down from where it had hovered on her lips, giggling a little bit.

"You're a little late noticing, darling."

"Stupid feathery little git," Ron came back to them muttering, holding poor little Pigwidgeon in his fist who only hoots happily as his head protruded over Ron's fist.

Hermione scowled, "Ron!"

He stopped his undertones to look momentarily confused before she took the little owl out of his hand gently, cooing to him.

"I swear, Ron. You have no sense of the meaning _gentle._ "

They all ended sitting up on one of the boys beds in the dormitories as Harry read Pigwidgeon's letter out loud…

 _Dear Harry,_

 _Congratulations on getting past the horntail, whoever put your name in the Goblet shouldn't be feeling too happy right now! I was going to suggest a Conjunctivitis curse, as a dragon's eyes are its weakest point but your way was better, I'm impressed._

 _Don't get complacent, though, Harry. You've only done one task: whoever put you in for the Tournament's got plenty more opportunity if they're trying to hurt you. Keep your eyes open- particularly when the person we discussed is around- and concentrate on keeping yourself out of trouble._

 _Keep in touch, I still want to hear about anything unusual._

 _Sirius_

Hermione frowned, feeling the little owl on her shoulders nip her curls and hoot again in her ear, "He sounds exactly like Moody," Harry said as he tucked the letter away.

"He's right, Harry." Hermione agreed with Sirius, "You really ought to look at that egg, start working out what it means-"

"He's got ages, 'Mione!" Ron interrupted her, ignoring her glare, "Want a game of chess, Harry."

Harry gave her an apologetic glance as he pulled out his wizarding chessboard and the pieces.

 **A/N: P.S.- Just a reminder (as a result of some very rude comments from a Guest), this is a Hermione/ Severus fic if their interactions in previous chapters were anything to go by ;) Anyway, just because other people come into Hermione's life at certain times does not mean the story pairing will change.**

 **I love you all, and bear with me. Severus will will be back!**


	16. 4th Year Part Five

**4th Year Part Five**

 **Chapter 16**

 **A/N: Guys! One more chapter 'til the end of 4th year, hope ya'll like this chapter! It's not perfect considering how it is organized, but had to give y'all more than a little snippet to read. XD love y'all!**

" _You don't need a perfect relationship. All you need is someone who loves your weirdness, wants to spend time with you, and respects you."_

Hermione's paws were cold and she was tired, but she wanted to see Severus after she woke up from a dream she couldn't remember although she remembered not liking it in the moment. The wards opened his chamber doors for her as she presses one small paw to the door frame, allowing her to prance sleepily in, nosed open Severus' cracked door, jumped onto his bed, and then proceed to climb onto his chest to put her little pink nose to his larger one.

Severus opens his eyes slightly as he feels a warm weight utop him, coming face to face with tiredly blinking caramel eyes and a cold nose. After many times of waking this way, he merely rolls her over to his side, and makes her squeal as he wraps his arms around her now human body. Feeling her shiver as the dungeon air penetrates her thin nightgown, he throws the covers over her as she kisses his jaw in thanks.

"What are you doing here so early? Shouldn't you be waking those two dunderheads?" He asked in his sleep roughened voice, his legs jerking a bit as Hermione presses her cold feet under his calves, and her hands on his bare back.

"Because we have to watch the sun rise, Severus. It's tradition."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Hermione was determined to get him up, so she stood on the cold floor pulling on his arm as he groaned, sliding sideways into her spot and ending facedown in the sheets. Much like his House's namesake, he detested going out into the frigid winter air even as their pelts kept them warm in their animal forms.

" _C'mon, Severus!"_

 _Hermione stands behind Tom, brushing his thick black hair as clumps of it came out with each brushstroke. With his detoriorating health, she had taken up the role as caretaker, without using that specific word of course. The man sitting in front of her had dark circles around his eyes, a tray of uneaten food laying on the vanity he sat underneath._

" _What do you do for yule break, Hermione?"_

 _She smiles at him, meeting his eyes in the mirror, "We used to have a family party I had to attend, but since starting school Severus and I will spend the day together. Sometimes we will sneak out to have lunch with Draco, Lucius, and Narcissa."_

 _Picking up a velvet box that sat beside his tray, he held it out to her. "Since you can not get away from the castle this year, here is a little gift from me to you. It is a small token of my appreciation for all you care of me."_

 _Inside the box was a pretty little bracelet with multiple charms already on it, representing the people who gifted them to her._

After the sun rose enough for Hermione to make her way to the boy's dorm with presents in hand, she allowed Severus to retreat back to his semi- warm rooms to dress for the day. Fingering the new protective charm on her bracelet, Hermione enters the boys room to find Dobby standing over Harry with their noses almost touching.

"Dobby?" She whispered to him, not wanting to wake the boys yet as the curtains surrounding the other beds were all closed, because gods forbid they wake before 10 o'clock.

 _That's about to change though…_

"Miss Hermione," Dobby squeaked as if he had been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, standing up ramrod straight and wringing his hands together around a small package dominated by curly multicolored ribbons.

Hermione chuckled, "Why are you standing above Harry? Are you trying to give him a present?"

He nodded vigorously, almost causing the multiple hats topped with a tinkling bell balancing on his head to wobble dangerously, "I's not wanting to wake Harry Potter. Harry Potter be mad at Dobby."

Walking up to the end of the bed, she placed her little pile of presents next to the one already there, "I can wake him up, he never gets mad at me." She smirks at his wide eyes before climbing lightly on the end before throwing herself bodily onto his sleeping form.

" _Ah!"_ Harry yells out briefly in surprise at being woken up in such a way, scowling darkly when he sees his best friend's face in front of his: laughing. " _Dammit, Hermione!"_ She continues to laugh even as she hear the other boys scramble out of bed, and Harry grabs her waist and moves her to the other side of the bed. He glares at her, "I hate it when you do that."

"Us too," Ron comes over with his gifts, sitting on Harry's chest at the end of the bed and preceding to open them with his hair pointing in all directions.

"Sorry, guys," Hermione smiled sheepishly at Seamus, Neville, and Dean as they tie open their curtain.

Tired acknowledgements came from the others in the room as Harry takes the present Dobby was twisting anxiously in his bony hands, eyes wide with either fear of Hermione having upset 'Harry Potter' or excitement about how he would react to his gift.

"We have something for you too, Dobby," Hermione finally gets through her giggles to pull a purple pair of socks wrapped in shiny silver paper, and hands it to the wide- eyed elf. "I hope you like them, I knitted them myself."

He was utterly delighted.

"Socks are Dobby's favorite, favorite clothes, miss and sirs!" He ripped off his old mismatched ones and pulls her new ones up above his knees. "But you've done two of the same Missy."

"For shame, 'Mione!" Ron gasped, "How could you make such a _mistake_?"

Without looking at him she slapped him on the back of the head before stretching the red oversized jumper she had stolen from her father years ago over her hands and bare knees, balancing her chin on top them while smiling at the little elf.

"I thought you might like a change."

"These are really… interesting… Dobby. Thanks." Harry told him, causing his big green eyes to become shiny.

"You're most welcome, Harry Potter. Dobby must get to the kitchens now, sir, we is already making the Christmas dinner in the kitchens!" Waving goodbye to the three of them, he disapparates with a small pop.

Hermione takes the blue sock with the broomsticks on it, and the red sock with the golden little snitches on it, rubbing her thumb over the stitching.

"Different aren't they?" Harry smiles.

She nods chuckling a bit before pulling the too big gift over her feet which happened to be much smaller than Harry's, grinning at him as they come up to the middle of her calf. Her feet had gotten chilled in her shorts even though Gryffindor Tower was much warmer than the Dungeons.

"Oh! I almost forgot," She hands Ron a tin can full of her mother's special caramel toffee christmas cookies, "For you Ron," he immediately digs in with a hasty thanks. "And for you, Harry. Merry Christmas."

Harry took the leather wrap bracelet not unlike the one she had given Severus years ago woven with protective charms and blood magic, though his eye was caught by the new glittering panther charm on her bracelet that he swore wasn't there before today. It shone even more brightly in the light than the little fox, snake, elephant, and lion that lined up next to them.

"Have fun, Gin," Hermione told the redhead as she hastily hugs her and heading towards the dungeons, fleeing the others in her year that resembled more a pack of wolves ready to pounce on their prey with various makeup materials in their claws than girls getting ready for a ball. "Neville really is sweet, don't listen to what the boys are saying." She jiggled her gown and makeup bags in her hands.

Ginny smiles at her appreciatively, "Where are you going?"

" _Hermione!"_

"Fleeing, I'll see you later. Cover me, please."

"Guys are lucky," Hermione tells Draco and Severus from behind the dressing divisor Severus had transfigured for her. Twisting pieces of hair away from her temples and securing it behind her head with an oval moonstone Lucius and Narcissa had gifted her, she nodded to her still wild, but slightly more tame curls. "You only have to have one pair of dress robes. Girls had to do their makeup, get shoes, and a dress..." She finishes her natural looking makeup with a line of shiny tinted gloss.

"You could have always took Winky's offer to help," Severus' voice was muffled as if he were talking into a glass tumbler he had on his work table when she had entered.

"Or you could have asked Mother. She would have come through the floo." Draco sounded bored.

Peeking her head from behind the screen, she frowned at the already fully dressed men. Both looking polar opposites in hair color, but the same in dressing style. Smiling Hermione rolled her eyes at Godfather and Godson, stepping into her dress.

"Don't get drunk, Severus. You're a chaperon remember?" She stepped into their sight, not seeing the looks both boys had given her as she stood in front of the full length mirror. "Zip me up?"

"You look beautiful, Hermione." Draco's reflection smiled at her from where he sat on the couch.

Severus downed his drink, coming up behind Hermione as she made alterations to the lace neckline and beading. Slowly rolling up the zipper, their eyes met in the mirror and she smiled at him as if the warmth of his fingers were not spreading through her back through the thin material of her red dress. Pulling out his wand, he changed the metal teeth to cloth covered buttons as she had requested when telling him of the dress she had wanted.

"You are stunning," he whispered in her ear, making her shiver as his hand brushes her single pearl necklace and he kisses her temple.

Twirling towards him in her short strappy heels, loving the feel of the floor length gown floating around her ankles, she pushed his shoulders back to see what she could change in both their high collared robes.

"You could have made an effort, Sev." She eyed his slightly better material frock coat, then Draco's. "Next you'll have the scowl to match Draco."

He smirked at her, stepping closer and spreading his arms out to his sides. "Do with me what you will."

"Careful with your words darling, they may get you into trouble someday." She chuckles at him, making alterations to plain black outer robes, adding a subtle shiny silver design. Changing his black dress shirt to the same color as well, and shrinking the neckline to make him look less like a vicar, and more a dashing young man. Turning to Severus who raises an eyebrow which she ignores, his outer robes are turned into more of a velvety fabric, his frock coat losing some of it's snake embossed buttons, and his hair tied back with a leather cord.

"Do we satisfy your specifications, madame?" Severus drawls, rubbing the velvet between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well enough," she chuckles, kissing both their cheeks before going back to Gryffindor Tower to mother her other boys.

"Ruffles! Lace! It's all back again!" Hermione could hear Ron whinging before she even got to their room, passing Fred and George in the hall as they went to meet their dates.

"Looking good, Hermione!" They both whistled from either side of her, grinning.

She laughed as she got to the screaming boys' dorm, "Thank you, boys."

The other fourth year boys didn't do a good job of hiding their laughing if the shade of Ron's face was anything to go on, but it quickly faded back to the normal color as he caught sight of Hermione in the doorway.

"'Mione!" Harry turned to her the red head called out, turning his body as if to hide his clothing.

Smiling he came up to hug her, her head level at his shoulder even with her heels. "You look beautiful, 'Mione." His lips brushed her cheek as he pulled back.

She smiled, kissing him back as they turn to Ron fussing at his clothes in the mirror. "You need help, Ron?"

"I thought you fixed these before, on the train!" He gestured vaguely down his body.

"Well, for starters, the charm wore off. They don't last forever," she muttered as she made his adjustments, severing lace here, shortening there, lengthening here and there, and changing it from faded maroon to the dark purple she had previously altered them to be. Twisting his shoulders back towards the mirror, he threw up his hands, and hugged her as he lifted her off her feet.

" _Thank Merlin!"_

"Will you tell us who your date is now?" Harry asked as she straightened his robes and hair.

She grinned, "No, Harry. You will have to wait and see; I have a feeling Ron's cheeks will be permanently stained red by the end of the night."

As they passed the doorway into a sea of red, black, and white, all eyes are on the line in which she was a part of. Her nerves going haywire as she dug her nails into Viktor's red coat, but as she found Severus' eyes in the group of teachers, they loosened slightly as her lips curved slightly more upwards. They were lead up to the High Table that had been modified for just this occasion for the feast before the champion's dance that would open the night.

Hermione talked with Viktor about his home and Durmstrang, smiling at a tortured looking Harry who sat next to Percy.

As the dance began, Hermione's nerves about being watched surfaced again as they took the middle of the floor and the music from the Weird Sisters beat in time with her heart. Keeping her eyes on Viktor instead of the people surrounding them, judging them on every step they took, she listened to her breathing in, and out, in, and out. It didn't take as long as Hermione thought it would. The music turned soft and calm to a more _teenage_ bass.

Some of the other Durmstrang boys came over, and Hermione took her chance to cool down on the sidelines after a few upbeat dances, "Viktor, I am going to find Harry." He nodded to her, and she left him to dance with his friends.

Finding some punch, Severus came into view as he danced with one of the girls from his house when the song changed to a slower one once again. It was supremely _odd_ finding Professors holding hands with their students, and she was surprised any would do so in the first place. Other than herself perhaps. After sitting on a nearby couch for a while, enjoying the little peace of solitude in this kind of affair, Severus snuck up behind her.

"Why are you sitting by yourself, girl?"

She turns, smiling up at him slightly before looking back to where Moody was swaying in his seat as he drunk from his flask, "I feel guilty, about Viktor. And I don't like dances, I only came because everyone else did even though I knew it was going to give me a headache."

His hand creeps underneath her hair onto her neck, the cold of it feeling good against her feverish skin. She was glad they were in a more secluded corner of the hall where no one would pay attention to her actions as she leaned back against him. Putting her hand utop his, she held it there and closed her eyes.

"Would you like to go outside?"

Viktor found them sitting on a stone bench near the dark red roses where some pixies laughed together, one of them glowing brighter as she flew around Hermione's hair and pulling on one of the strands. The Professor grabbed it around the tiny waist, and pulled it's wings off. The Bulgarian took a step forward, but hesitated on the next as he saw his date slap the scornful man's arm. His eyebrows shot up as the man he had heard so much negativity about smiled and grabbed Hermione around the waist when she stood up when a scolding look on her face, Professor Snape smiling down to her as she looks around at the other fairies. Despite her previous expression which then melted, she wrapped her arms around his head as snow fell all around them and started to dance to the soft music floating through the Great Hall.

Viktor left them, and waited for Hermione to come find him while two boys hiding behind a group of winter blue roses stared open mouthed at the couple.

 _She looked up to him with a smile, a smile he had never seen on her face directed towards him before._

"I know you don't like me the way I like you, Hermione. But I understand," He kissed her forehead, and left her to her thoughts. Hermione leaned back against the stone wall, staring at him with sad eyes as he walked down the deserted hallway they had stopped in after he rescued her from the clutches of an angry Weasley and weirded out Chosen One.

Her head fell back against the stone wall, sliding to the cold floor with her eyes closed. She felt him beside her, the only indication of him before she felt his robes along her arm was his scent. The lovely scent she never seemed to stop smelling.

"Am I a bad person?" This question sounded familiar, taking her back to a time when a boy called her a mean word and then fell down some stone steps. Unlike the time before in a more precarious situation, guilt made her stomach roil as she rested her head on Severus' shoulder.

He thought back on the same incident as she did, kissing her forehead, "Far from it, lovely girl."

~.O.~

"I swear, Harry," Hermione rubbed her eyes feeling them heavy from lack of sleep. "What are you going to do when I'm not around anymore to help you with every little thing?"

Harry frowned down at the top of her curly head, looking away from the heavy golden egg he held under his arm. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He heard her little sigh, and realized not for the first time, that she was just so tiny and fragile, but appearances hid many things.

"When we're not in Hogwarts anymore, when we will eventually have to face the Dark Lord, and I might not be with you all day every day."

His face hardened as it normally did when someone mentioned Voldemort, and he paused his steps as Hermione continued on to the heavy door that hid the Prefects Bathroom.

"Why do you call him the Dark Lord, 'Mione?" he questioned.

She was the one to now pause her walking, not looking him the eye as her hand raised to touch the stone walk next to her. "It's habit now I guess, some people don't take to kindly to the name he made for himself, and most don't know his birth one."

She continued into the candle filled bathroom, dragging her hand along the damp stones, Harry trailing behind her and keeping silent as they get to the benches.

"What are you doing?" Harry's voice goes slightly high as Hermione drags her shirt over her head, dropping it to the white marbled floor, and proceeding to pull her curls into a high bun.

She laughs at him, "It's not a big deal, love." She turned around, unbuttoning her jeans and toeing off her flats. "I'll even turn around, wouldn't want to offend your delicate sensibilities."

"I don't mind," a giggling girly voice came from the filling pool that served as the bath. "Take your clothes off Harry, I promise I won't look." Moaning Myrtle covered her circled glasses almost identical to Harry's with her hands.

"I'll not be able to look at Ron after this," he muttered, Hermione hearing this chuckles again as the bathroom echos with Myrtle's giggling. They both had come to the conclusion that Ron had a little crush on her after all his muttering and whinging about her going to the yule ball with Viktor, it certainly explained his odd behavior before. He turned his back to his friend, and the pretty blonde sleeping mermaid that lay in the stained glass window, her hair moving each time she breathed out.

After their bits were covered in the bubbly soap in the swimming- pool- sized bath, they put the egg into the water and let the singing fill their ears after doing a few laps to relax their minds.

" _Come seek us where our voices sound,_

 _We cannot sing above the ground,_

 _And while you're searching, ponder this:_

 _We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

 _An hour long you'll have to look,_

 _And to recover what we took,_

 _But past an hour- the prospects black_

 _Too late, it's gone. It won't come back."_

They made their way back to the common room through the dark halls, talking quietly as to how Harry could breath underwater short of turning himself into a fish.

They made an effort to keep their voices low so as to not let them bounce off the walls. "No thank you, I would prefer not to have permanent gills growing on my neck."

"I will ask Professor Snape if there is a potion that can help," they were quiet for a bit before he made an observation he had noticed so many times before, but had never said anything.

"You don't hate him like the rest of the school does," she shot him a disapproving look that looked more sinister in her wand light that it would normally, "You don't even dislike him. You even danced with him at the yule ball in the garden. With no one around. Alone."

She grabbed his arm to stop him, crinkling the Marauders Map in her other hand, "I don't hate him, Harry, and neither should you. I told you before that he isn't a bad person, he just has a bad attitude most of the time to keep people from bothering him. Besides," she pats his cheek, "If he was as evil as you and everyone else thought he wouldn't have saved our lives as many times as he has."

"You're always defending him, you know," he stared at the map, watching Filch and Mrs. Norris.

"Someone has to," she said quietly. "Have I ever told you it was him and Dumbledore that came to explain like Hagrid did with you?" He shook his head, "You and him have a certain relationship with each other, and it's the same with us, but different."

Harry said nothing as Hermione saw Barty Crouch's name shows up on the map in Severus' office, and by some miracle, Peeves decided to show up just before Harry could see.

" _Students out of bed!"_ His manic laughter bounced off the high ceilings, doing exactly what they wanted to not. His transparent shape was only _just_ seen in the light of the wand. " _Potty and girly mudblood out of bed together!"_ Water balloons were pelted at them before the poltergeist disappeared through the wall as Harry drops the egg that then proceeds to squeal.

" _Get under the cloak!"_ She pushed him towards a tapestry just as a bare chested, and barefooted figure appeared in black sleep pants with a leather cord tied round on his wrist, his wand significantly brighter than Hermione had her's.

Lighting a few torches, Severus picked up the screaming egg from where is still spun on the uneven stone, and closed it. Tucking it under his arm as he came right in front of the tapestry, smelling the air. Peeves comes screaming again down the hall, but cowers as soon as he sees the Potions Master and flees whimpering back towards he came.

"Come out," he says softly, knowing the little mouse girl was around.

Harry said nothing as Hermione stepped out from behind the curtain, right into the Professor's chest. He was tempted to step out beside her, but was pushed back by her little hand before he could.

"Hello, Professor Snape," she told the man looking down at her now dripping nightgown she had transfigured her clothes into.

He raised a black brow, his eyes flicking behind her in question before stepping back at her confirming nod. They both turned towards Moody as he came growling around the corner.

"Snape! What is all the racket?" His eye was moving at over the place, seeming to settle on the concealed figure behind Hermione after roaming over Severus' chest and Hermione's gown. "Wake up the whole castle!"

"I have it handled," he told the ex- Auror coolly whose wooden leg echoed down the hall as he grunted and turned back to where he came from.

"What is it you think you are doing?" Severus' eyebrow was raised once more, the arm holding the egg twitched.

Hermione smiled widely up at him, grateful her back was turned towards Harry is he looked through the gap from where he stood.

"Helping a friend with their egg, sir."

"Detention, Miss. Granger." He fought to keep a straight face, "Come with me."

"Do you have a potion to help breathing underwater, sir?" Harry heard Hermione ask, their voices farther away as he peaked out to make sure it was clear to reveal himself. Watching them get farther down the hall, his breath caught in his throat when he saw the professor's scarred figure in the dim light disappear altogether as the torches were extinguished.

~.O.~

Hermione felt like she was floating in cold air, but was held down by a weight around her ankle. There were strange screams and screeches all around her, as if she were in a room that echoed and you could discern where the person was talking. Her head was cloudy, and heavy, and she was scared.

She wanted Severus, because Severus fixes everything and protects her.

The screaming was getting louder, and then she was grabbed around the middle before she floated away into nothingness. Suddenly, her lungs felt like they had never had air before and her eyes had never seen the light of day. Coughing, there was a different kind of screaming around her as multiple someones said her name, although her body was so weighed down all she could do way lay on her back and try to unblur her eyes.

"I've got her," one voice stood out from the others as someone picked her up and carried her for a few moments before she was placed on something soft.

"Sev-" she tried talking but started coughing again when it felt like sandpaper was rubbing against her vocal cords, her eyes finally focused enough to see Severus pressing a vial to her lips.

"Drink this, lovely girl." His voice was worried, and the taste of mint and chocolate lingers in her throat as her eyes close for a moment. "What were you thinking agreeing to this task." Hermione could hear his teeth grinding together.

Looking around the small enclosed space of tent they were in, she sat up and ran her fingers over his jaw, "Stop grinding your teeth, it's not good for you." Reaching up, he grabbed her fingers, kissing them before putting his forehead to them, "The Headmaster made it clear that we were the only choices."

He huffed knowing Dumbledore would have done what he wanted regardless of anyone's wishes. Watching Hermione quietly as she pulled various lake- life from her hair, she pulls out a squirming beetle, placing it into the bottle Severus has pulled from his seemingly endless pockets.

"I was scared, Severus," her voice was small.

Sounds of more people entering the tent came from behind the thin fabric of her privacy curtain, "I'll see you later," Hermione kissed the back of his hand that had been entwined with her's.

"Lovely girl," he kissed her forehead back in answer, sweeping out of the tent as Harry barges in, and right behind him little Gabrielle Delacour.

"Hermione!" the wet little girl jumped up on her bed, quickly followed by her sister. "Did you hear the merpeople when we were asleep?"

 **A/N: I love reviews ;)**


	17. 4th year Part Six

**Chapter 17**

 **A/N: Thank you all for your love! This will be the last chapter for a while while I write 5th year so I hope y'all will like it!**

" _Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness."_

" _Aconite… Acromantula venom… low on lacewing flies… leeches… powdered bicorn horn… low on knotgrass..."_ Hermione shook her head and checked off her list as she went in alphabetic order, balancing on a tall wooden ladder in Severus' storeroom.

Severus had his hair tied back in a leather cord as he stood over a potion in his button up and slacks, "We're low on Polyjuice ingredients, Sev."

"I am aware," he stared intently at his cauldron as she hugged him from behind, careful not to jostle his arm and ruin the new batch.

"Barty needs to make his own damn potion, you have enough things to do for the Dark Lord."

"I do as I am told," he drawled sarcastically, "As always."

"You do what is in your best interest, to keep yourself in good graces." She picked up the bottled beetle, holding it up to her face to examine the little marks around it's eyes.

"In _our_ best interest. Although, you don't seem to need it as you are _always_ in his good graces." He finally looked up to her in time to see her lip curling inwards in a snarl at him, putting out the fire with his wand. "Pluck the wings off and scoop out the eyes."

She rolled her eyes as the beetle squirmed as it it heard his instructions, her lip receding, "Such a sweet talker."

Starting to tug at a wing, Hermione lets out a startled scream as the little bug turned into a frightened dyed blonde, curly headed Daily Prophet journalist. The woman falls to the floor as Hermione does the opposite and jumps up to sit on the counter, Severus immediately coming between the two girls and points his wand into the blonde's face.

"Give me the jar, Hermione."

~.O.~

Severus followed Hermione's smell which was, as usual, in the middle of her two friends as another animal's floats from the cave which sat at the top of the rocky hill.

 _Sirius Black was a serious pain in the arse..._

Sirius was back to being as skinny and dirty as he had been when he had escaped Azkaban Hermione saw as he scruffed down the food they had brought, his wrist had to be as bony as Harry's. In between bites of the chicken and bread he shoved into his mouth, he told the the trio of Barty Crouch and his son as Hermione pet Buckbeak who had come over and put his head into her lap.

She knew what Harry was thinking right before the words came out of his mouth with a frown on his face, "That's not possible. The map said he was in the castle a few days ago."

Hermione continued to pet the Hippogriff's feathers until she heard Severus' name, and a rustle outside the cave that accompanied the scent of the man.

Sirius hummed at Harry's observation of Severus and Headmaster Karkaroff's interaction one day after class, his eyes slid to Hermione's curly head which was still angled downwards, "It must be the Dark Mark." Everyone was silent before Sirius decided to speak again, almost absently. "He always knew more curses than anyone else when we started Hogwarts."

Hermione spoke up then as Harry grimaced remembering the scarred back of the Potions Master, "Maybe he had need of them to protect himself against people who decided to bully him once they saw a boy smaller than them." She looked up to an uncomfortably observant animagus and confused boys, "But now look at him, he's not so little now is he?"

Harry changed the subject, "Did you see a Dark Mark on his arm 'Mione?"

Ron interrupted now, looking as bewildered as can be, "When would she have seen his arm? He only sheds his robes once a year like the snake that he is." He laughed at his own joke along with Sirius and Harry, although the latter one's was smaller. Ron had been kept in the dark as to their little tryst into the prefects bathroom, and he seemed to get getting his panties into a twist at the mere mention of Hermione being anything resembling a girl.

Hermione kept her face carefully blank, "Snakes shed their skins two to four times a year, Ronald, and no, Harry. He doesn't have a Dark Mark that I have seen."

"How would you _know_?" Ron was getting frustrated now, his curiosity unsatiated.

Severus decides this to be the best time to integrate himself into the little group, and Hermione can't help but feel relieved to see his tall figure come through the shadows into the little magical lights floating in the cave. The boys in the group shot up from their seats on their logs with their wands up, but Hermione stayed where she was as he came into the light.

"What are you doing here Severus?" Sirius asked before the boys could shoot their mouths off, his wand lowering but kept in his hand. Harry and Ron followed his movements. "How did you find us?"

He sneers slightly as he moved around the small cave, menovuring himself to stand behind Hermione and Buckbeak. "You should really cover your tracks better, Black." He cocked his head to the side as Hermione stood, brushing dirt off her jeans. "What would Dumbledore think of you being out of your cage I wonder?"

"What are you going to do? Tell him?" Ron pops off, his wand twitching as if he would fire on his most frightening professor.

"Watch your tone boy," Severus growls lowly enough for only Hermione to hear, as well as Sirius whose eyes widen slightly, not knowing he was an animagus.

Harry opened his mouth before Hermione interrupts, "We should get back to the castle, we're almost due back."

"We can find our own way back, _professor,_ " Ron says rudely, passing Hermione and Severus who stood at the mouth of the cave.

"Are you coming, Hermione?" Harry paused by them, glancing towards the tall man beside her.

"I'll walk back with Professor Snape." Hermione nudges Severus as she says goodbye to Sirius.

He rolls his eyes without looking towards the man, "Try not to get caught, Black."

Sirius follows the little group behind Severus and Hermione, feeling the wind blow his fur back from his body as he listens to their voices carry on the wind. The breeze shifts just enough for the couple to smell him as they pause when Severus grabs her elbow to stop her from tripping, and they shift into their animagi forms to keep him from following them. It succeeded as Sirius stops in shock at the sight of the two contrasting forms entering the forest that ran up to Hogwarts.

~.O.~

Severus floated quietly down the dark hallway, his robes billowing behind him as he kept an eye out in search of students out past curfew. His lips were relaxed although they did not typically always tell the truth, contrary to what the students thought his eyes were more telling if they pulled up enough courage to look into them. Like Hermione did.

Shuffling sounds were heard in a dark crevice in front of him, filled with low sounds of panting. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley. Miss. Johnson." His thin lips twisted in irritation at the third couple of teens he found himself in front of, "The next time I find you sequestered away together after curfew, you will find yourselves in the middle of the Forbidden Forest picking potions ingredients after curfew. Without you wands."

George and Angelina scurried past the dour man, silent for once with no quips to add to his obviously foul mood. Severus now shook his head for an entirely different reason.

 _How are they to fight in a war if they cannot even push past their fear of a teacher?_

Walking back down to the dungeons, he hears tiny little footsteps. Almost silent in their quest of following him. Speeding up slightly, his mouth once again shows genuine amusement as a feels a light tugging at the back of his robes, his lips quirked up. Turning around suddenly, Hermione bumps her little head into his legs as her toy is ripped from her grasp. With a small whine of discontent, she sprawls onto her stomach before getting up with a shake of her head. Looking up to him with playful eyes, her tail wagged lazily from side to side until he picks her up and balances her little body on his shoulders. Licking the place under his ear where she knows he is ticklish, he basks in her small presence as it was, rubbing her nose up and nose it's tiny length until she falls asleep.

~.O.~

"Dammit, Harry," Hermione gritted her teeth. "Pay-" she hit him on the head with a wad of parchment once, "-attention!" Then twice.

"I'm trying!" He held his hands up to block the other blows coming for his head. "I'm trying, okay! But we've been at this all day, I'm as ready as I'm going to be."

All Hermione could feel was the pit of guilt making an appearance back in her stomach, the feeling spreading up into the back of her throat to collide with the fear in her heart on it's way. Severus would tell her to breathe.

 _Just breathe…_

"Hermione?"

"Hmm?" Her eyes opened from where they had dropped slightly from concentrating on her breathing, slowing her suddenly racing heart.

His hand covered hers, "You don't have to worry about me, you helped so much already. It's up to me now."

She smiled, squeezing his fingers a bit as she felt her eyes cloud up, "Who else is going to worry about you if not me?"

Ron's eyes narrowed from behind his quidditch magazine, zeroing on their hands in the middle of the papers strewed across the library table.

The cheering people in the stands watched as each champion entered the maze, none knowing what would soon take place in a cemetary far from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hermione was strangely calm as she saw Severus' black figure making it's way out of the stands and into the dark around them.

 _It was time..._

Making her way to him while Ron was distracted with talking with Bill, she entered the forbidden forest where he stood with his black eyes tracking each step she made. Waving her wand around her body, her long coat and jeans shift into the black robes of a Death Eater as she grabs onto Severus' waist, hugging him tightly. She felt as if he knew her heart was beating out of her chest, and he probably did.

His arms come around her shoulders, "Are you sure about this?"

She looked up to the man who had been her whole world for years, and reached up onto her tiptoes. Kissing him lightly on the lips, she felt him respond before she dropped back down as she felt a burning in her stomach and heart that warmed her in the cold air.

"Wherever you go, I go, Severus. We are so far into this anyway, we couldn't leave even if we wanted to."

He looks at her with eyes that saw through everything within her, and smiled, completely contradictory to the mood they would soon find themselves in. The entwined figures disappear in a cloud of black smoke no one in the cramped stands notice; all except a pair of blue eyes framed by half- moon glasses.

Hermione took Tom's hands in hers, smiling at him brightly and completely sane. Although she did not feel as if what they were about to do was very sane.

 _Breathe…_

"Are you ready to reborn into a healthy man once again, my Lord?" He takes her face in his slightly trembling hands, kissing her softly on the lips as she had done to Severus not minutes ago.

"You will be rewarded for your loyalty, Hermione. You as well Lucius, Severus." He hisses lowly, calling Nagini out into the light of the torches that had been lit around them. Sliding around tombstones, the large snake came to rest beside Hermione, waiting for her part in the ritual to come. Glancing to an impassive Severus, she helps the Dark Lord in the large cauldron set in the circle of stones where they stood. Her hands shook as she conjures the skull of his father from where she stood above his grave, setting it upon the crossed arms of the angel holding the scythe where it guarded the Riddle graves.

A thump echos through Hermione's head as the three followers conjured the bone masks upon their faces, turning them into harbingers of death.

"Grab him," Severus tells Lucius, his deep voice turned even deeper through the protection of the mask.

Two voices came from behind the tall gravestone, and Hermione felt an icy pour down the back of her neck, chilling her to the toes as she steps closer to Severus. Harry and Cedric Diggory were dragged in front of her and pushed to their knees. She couldn't breathe, but forced herself to raise her Occlumency shields and continue through the ritual numbly, ignoring Harry and Cedric's screams.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given." Hermione levitated Tom Riddle Sr. bone into the cauldron, "You will renew your son." She turned to Nagini who raised up to Hermione's raised forearm, sinking her teeth in deep as her venom flowed into Hermione's bloodstream. "Blood of the servant, and venom of the familiar willingly combined and given for the resurrection of our master." Her breath became slow as she sliced where Nagini's fangs had sunk into her flesh, allowing the blood to drip onto Tom's head and over his closed eyes. The part she dreaded came to a head as she floated to Severus where he held Harry on his knees, a silencing charm keeping him quiet. "B-blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will resurrect your foe." Blood from her best friend's jugular was the last ingredient to be put onto Tom's now sleeping form, the ritual components complete and ready for Severus to begin his healing chant.

They stood in the circle of death with death's leader at the center.

 _Nothing would be the same after this..._

Hermione grabbed Severus' hand, shielded by their dark robes and masks. Cedric's lovely eyes stared up at her from where his body lay unmoving at her feet, his heart no longer pumping blood through his body to sustain that smile he always had for her.

Tom stood in front of Harry, as naked and handsome as the day he made his first kill. She examined the planes of muscle on his back, the way his visique and how lean he was was almost like Severus with his ribs jutting about above the v of his hips that led down to the thin patch of hair around his privates. But something was off in the way his skin had a faint bluish tint in what she could see in the torch's light, and his skin stretched tightly over his skull, giving it the slight appearance of one. His blue veins were full of new healthy blood that pumped his heart, and showed through his arms, chest, and hands. His eyes were not changed from that striking blue that seemed as if they could look into your soul though, and maybe they could, even filled with the bloodlust that sent shivers down her spine.

 _I know what he is going to do…_

 _I always knew..._

Harry sees Hermione's little figure glide up to Tom, conjuring a white robe to cover his new body.

"Leave him, my Lord," she whispers in his ear, "The people need a spectacle of it all, but not until you have reached your full potential in the Ministry. If you kill him now, everyone will know you live, if he tells Dumbledore there is nothing he can do if no one else believes them."

Harry stares in disbelief as Voldemort backs away from him, barking at the Death Eaters surrounding him to depart.

"We'll see each other again, Harry Potter." The Dark Lord's human eyes gave Harry shivers down his spine, as if a piece of ice had slid down his back and the cold had not dissipated. He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

The little figure and their companion were the only ones left behind to see the scarred boy stare at them, frozen next to the Wizard's Cup. Hermione walks back to her companion, holding back tears, and wraps herself around him once more.

~.O.~

All Hermione could see was Harry's face, screwed up in that familiar way in the midst of all the yelling going around them. Her hands were still shaking from the adrenaline rush of things happening so fast after her and Severus had come back to the Quidditch field full of still cheering fans. Hermione had looked around her, still feeling numb after pushing back her cry of sadness, and thought of how many people would believe Harry after he came back with Cedric's body.

 _Am I a bad person, Severus?_

 _No, girl. Out of the two of us, I'm the bad person._

Her best friend's scar bled red, right in the middle of his forehead. Standing up from where she had been sitting between Ron and Bill at the foot of his bed, she sat next to him and held her arms out. He didn't hesitate as he wrapped his long skinny body around her as if she could keep all the bad things away from him forever. Everything would be okay as long as he kept his wet face buried in her mass of curls where no one would bother him, because he knew she would protect him from whoever thought to hurt him. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as she held him just as tight as he did her.

 _This seems to be the question most asked lately though…_

 _What does it mean when it is asked over, and over?_

~.O.~

Rita Skeeter was taken out of her unbreakable jar that girl, and that horrid professor had kept her in. She was dirty, disoriented, and hungry.

 _It was supposed to be simple… so simple… in and out..._

She had gotten into Hogwarts so many times in her animagi form, and out undetected. She never thought it would end up stuck in such a little form, eating leaves, and berries, and other smaller bugs. She lay on a cold, hard surface that soaked into her bones that already ached from being in such a little home for months.

Her eyes were blurry and glued shut, and very hard to open. But she heard a shuffle from somewhere in the room she lay in, and she hoped it wasn't the man or the girl who kept her prisoner. Moaning, she turned onto her back and attempted to open her eyes. Met with bright sunlight piercing her skull, building behind her eye to form a pounding headache. Pushing through the pain, she allowed her eyes to adjust.

A handsome man sat on a dias in front of her disheveled figure. She was in the middle of a magnificent white marble ballroom, laying on the floor in front of an unknown handsome man with no wand.

"Ms. Skeeter," his deep voice echoed lowly throughout the room, bouncing off the marble of everything. He cocked his head to the side as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, looking too much as if he were looking at a bug under a magnify glass.

The now dirty blonde looked around skittishly, seeing she was alone with the man.

He smiled charmingly, "My name is Marvolo ."

Seeing neither of her captors, the woman smiled a small smile back at the overly handsome man with the deep sunken eyes.

 _He saved me from those horrible people…_

She took the hand that was offered to her, and tried to smooth down her frizzed hair.

~.O.~

Hermione asked such an innocent question it was childlike and so out of place in the magical world filled with so much good, yet so much bad it balanced itself out.

"Are we safe now?" She asked Severus as she buried her face into his hair just as Harry did to her. She may be Harry's lifeline to his protection, but Severus was, and always would be hers for as long as they lived.

"For now," he said. He held her just as tight as she did him in the garden full of flowers and peacocks white as snow. "We are for now."

Their lips pressed tightly together with such repressed emotion, they said through that one little kiss everything they had felt towards one another since the beginning of the uprising of the Dark Lord earlier in the year.

 _Just breathe…_

 _I'm here..._

 **A/N: Love you lots and you know I love reviews!**


	18. 5th Year Part One

**Chapter 18**

 **A/N: Hi guys! I didn't want anyone to think I forgot I gave up this story so... here we go! It might be a while between posts but somethings better than nothing so I'll keep posting as I finish portions in the outline. Happy reading, hope ya'll like it!**

"Are you sure you want to do this, girl?" Severus' hand was tangled in her curls massaging her head. Hermione leaned her back against her parent's couch and Severus' side, all without dislodging his hand.

"I'm sure," she whispered, "I will feel better if they were gone and safe rather than here where the Dark Lord can access them if he learns of our motives."

He kissed her temple murmming into her ear as they hear footsteps on the stairs, "We don't know when you'll be able to see them again. It could be a year, or it can be five."

She closed to eyes briefly, turning her head into Sev's shoulder as her parents came into view of them. "Let's hope it won't take that long."

Mark and Sheila stopped at the bottom of the stairs, each holding bags of their own. Hermione stands up after sniffling into Severus' arm once more and immediately goes to her mother who had clearly been doing the same as her eyes were rimmed with red. Grabbing her around her shoulders, Hermione and Sheila start crying all over again. Mark steps next to Severus, giving the two women in his life a moment to say goodbye.

Holding out his hand to the other man, he looks him straight in the eye, "Take care of my girl, Severus. Her and Sheila are my life."

Severus looks into the exact replica of Hermione's dark caramel eyes that held the same laughter, shaking the other man's hand.

"Always. She is my whole life."

When the girls are finished crying on each other, Hermione stands in front of her father for a moment, taking in his large powerful form and his aged face. Her lips start to quiver for what felt like the hundredth time that night as he opens his arms to her, so she grabs him around the waist and squeezes as hard as she can as he kisses the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, Daddy." Her voice quivered from restraining her sobs, the tone of her voice rising and falling with each word. "I'm sorry I brought us onto this."

Pulling back and lifting her chin up to him with his fingers, he said, "Never be sorry for something you can't control, Hermione."

Going up onto her toes, Hermione kisses the corner of her father's mouth and hugs him one last time before doing the same to her mother. Wiping her tears away and going back to Severus' side, and leaning her side against his arm with her hand wrapping around his.

Her mother looks to her daughter and the professor that had watched her all these years, cultivating more than just her intellectual mind. Grabbing her only daughter once more before they left, she whispered in her ear.

"Don't get married without me, love. I would very much like to see you in a white wedding dress."

Blushing, tears welling up again, Hermione conjured the portkey Severus had made with her new swirly designed untraceable wand Severus had procured for her. Handing it to her parents with trembling fingers, she watched them disappear. Picking Crookshanks who had been purring into her arms up from the back of the white covered couch, Severus locked the red door behind them as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

They watched the two story house disappear, and in it's place a vacant grass covered alley.

~.O.~

Hermione walked across the cold gold and white tiles of Malfoy Manor towards Lucius' office, the cold seeping through her black socks as she opens his study door without knocking. The blonde headed man was already in his day robes, although his head lolled back against his favorite sofa as his body lounged about in an uncharacteristic lazy pose. His eyes were closed as Hermione stood over him, admiring his long white eyelashes flutter against his cheek. Bending down, she ran a feathered quill gently down his nose until it twitched.

"Lucius," she whispered, his body was still. "Uncle Lucius..." She giggled quietly as she ran the feather down his nose once again, a small frown forming between his pale brows. "Are you asleep?"

She squeaked out a sudden laugh as she was suddenly dragged on top of him, his hands around her ribs as her laughs rang through the room.

"I was trying to sleep until a little girl's little giggles made their way into my ear." He stopped tickling her, letting her catch her breath as he hugged her to him, "What are you doing in my study, besides ruining my beauty sleep?"

She smiled up at him smaller than before as she traces the dark circle under his eyes, "It's almost time for breakfast. I told Narcissa I would get you and Draco."

He heaved a deep sigh, no doubt knowing Tom would be at the breakfast table as he made himself at home more and more lately. With Hermione sitting closest to him. He watched her as she rolled off him to her feet, kissing his cheek, and dance out of the room in search for his son. Finding him still in bed surrounded by darkness, she goes to the drapes and opens them, turning around to see him lying on top his silver covers facedown with only pants to cover his modesty. And a fluffy yawning Kneazle who thinks humans are more comfortable than beds. Sitting beside his head, she ran a hand down his pale back that told her he must have been lying like that for sometime as it had an overtone of cold, then running over a purring Crookshanks' head and spine.

"Draco," she said softly, making him finally grunt in acknowledgement. "Look at me."

His green eyes find her, squinting at the bright light behind her making her glow as she smiles at him and brushes his hair back.

"You need to come down for breakfast."

He sighs and grabs her hand, putting it beneath his cheek and closing his eyes once again, "I don't want to."

"But you have to," she wiggles her fingers on his cheek, tickling his nose with the feather she had brought from Lucius' office making it wrinkle up like a small boy's. "I know you are afraid of him, but he will not hurt you. He will be doing things differently from the last war, he will not torture people for trifling things."

He looks up at her, relinquishing her hand as he flips over, dislodging Crooks who fled to Hermione's warm lap. "How can you be so sure?"

Her eyes sparkle down to him, "Because I said so, now get dressed. Severus and your parents are probably seated by now."

The men talked of the overthrow of the Ministry as Tom sat at the head of the table, Severus and Lucius both on the either side of him as there was no social niceties to look on in such an informal setting. Hermione then in shoes sat with one leg underneath her, Severus' large hand that was not occupied with his eggs rested on her bare ankle as she ate and talked with Narcissa in front of her next to Lucius and Draco on the other side of the curly headed girl. Hermione could still tell Draco was nervous around the man at the head of the table as Tom took a moment from the two other men to talk to them about school, so she put her hand on his leg and squeezed softly. He grabbed two of her fingers and held them under the table for the rest of the meal, her thumb rubbing the smooth cartilage between his thumb and pointer fingers. Severus saw this and mimicked her actions on her ankle, causing her to smile up at him softly.

When it was time for Hermione and Severus to leave for Grimmauld Place to spend the rest of summer there, Tom in his handsome face ran his warm fingers down her cheek, so much different from only a few months ago.

"Listen closely and carefully, Hermione. You know what we are looking for."

She turned her cheek into his hand, looking up to him with utter devotion shining in her eyes.

"I will not fail you, My Lord."

"I have no doubt of that."

Her hand reaches out for Severus, and his long fingers grasp hers as they walk through the echoey halls of Malfoy Manor after saying goodbye to their hosts. Watching Severus' blank face, he looks down to her as she wraps an arm around his slim waist, not hiding the myriad of emotions within his eyes in which the dominant was shame. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders in preparation for apparition as she leans up to his the corner of his mouth, wondering how much of a strain and stain this war would leave on their souls and hearts.

~.O.~

Hermione stared as a somewhat shabby building appeared between numbers ten and thirteen, and Sirius' childhood home of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place looked as if it were in serious need of repairs.

 _Or maybe not… since muggles couldn't see it anyway… the inside doesn't look much better better..._

Hermione walked down the cobwebbed hallway with bags of cleaning supplies Mrs. Weasley had asked her to get. She hadn't even been settled for a day before she was given something to do, and she was glad to do it. Sirius' house- elf was on strike against the master who had returned home after so long, and who he considered a blood- traitor. Hermione wasn't complaining about the cleaning though, Severus' home had given her enough experience with which cleaning charms worked and which would just be better not even trying and getting down into the dust and spiders.

Tripping slightly over the trolls leg umbrella stand, Hermione glared down at the ugly and offensive thing as it seems to move on it's own but was adverse to people moving it with a permanent sticking charm affixing it as a normal item. Half the things in the home were tuck to the walls, tables, and floors in this house, and Hermione vowed under her breath once she figured out how to severe the charm the leg would be the first to go.

Passing several members of the Order, she smiled and said hello as they did the same while Molly took a few of the bags from her and set them in the kitchen. Told to pick a room downstairs to spend her time ridding of years of grim no one knew could build up in layers in a locked up house, Hermione wandered into the Black Family Tapestry room. A large room it was, almost bigger than the living room, the only thing it contained was a large tree with names and pictures as leaves. Tracing around them, Hermione found various names of affluent Death Eater families, Potters, Malfoys, and finally found Sirius' parents. Tracing a detailed vine to the name beside where Sirius' blackened picture used to be, she traced the jawline of his brother's sharp jawline they both seemed to have inherited from their mother.

Hearing a rustle behind her, she continues to trace along the lines while waiting for him to say something, glancing over her shoulder to see him leaning against the doorframe with his head cocked to the side studying her.

He says nothing for a while, so she does as she stops at two names of an incomplete family in which another blackened name falls under as no lines are automatically made under family who are burned off the tree.

"He was very handsome, your brother."

"He was." He pauses for another long moment.

She turned back towards him, "Do you miss him?"

He crosses his arms, looking down to his feet before glancing up to her eyes that showed a sadness in his gray ones, "Sometimes. He joined the Death Eaters, and he went missing shortly after graduating from Hogwarts."

"Do you ever wonder what happened to him?"

"I always wonder, it's just hard to pick just one idea and stick to it."

They were quiet for a few more moments while Hermione silently debated on rather or not to ask to do something he may not approve of. She decided there was no harm either way, but she had no idea of what Severus' reaction would be to it.

Sirius watched as her finger traced around a Prince name, puzzled as to why before she asked, "Do you mind if I add a name to your tree? It doesn't seem to be finished."

He walked to stand beside her and looked at the names she had traced.

 _Alexandre Prince… Eleanor Prince… Eileen Prince… the last blacked out…_

He chuckled slightly, "Do you know something I don't know?"

She smiled pointy toothed at him, "I know a few things you don't, Sirius. Do you mind if one is a muggle?"

He waved a hand towards the wall, indicating he could care less. Watching as she bent down and aim her wand towards the branch extending from the blackened portrait, Eileen Prince was connected with Tobias .… Snape… the branch indicating their child was soon connected with…

 _Severus. T. Snape…_

Hermione stood back up, running her fingers over the dry ink that had formed Severus' picture through magic of marriage connections. It seemed as it all one had to do was add a name and the familial bonds would do the rest.

 _Neat..._

Hermione smiled once again at him sharkily, his face felt frozen as he stared the the man's aquiline nosed portrait.

"Did I know something you didn't?"

~.O.~

" _You will see if they follow through," Tom tells her, "They are notorious for being hungry waifs, watch and see if they have restraint."_

 _Hermione watches as the frost fades from the window panes as the Dementors fly away into a darkening sky, raindrops pattering softly on the glass._

" _As you command, my Lord."_

Hermione kisses Severus on the cheek as she lets go of his hand on the sidewalk of Little Whinging. After looking at the white one story house with the rather dead grass in the dead of summer, he sniffs and disapparates only once Hermione rings the doorbell after smoothing down her thin white sundress that held underneath it tied to her thigh her wand snug inside a holster. He had no reason or need to see Lily's sister anytime soon.

Petunia Dursley had not gotten much prettier since Hermione had last seen her only a few years previous, neither had Vernon Dursley much thinner. The woman was all smiles as she opened the door, apparently not recognizing Harry's best friend from the brief glimpses she had gotten of the witch on Platform 9 and quarters.

"Can I help you?" The woman wore a horrid navy dress with large white flowers tied with thick straps around her neck, not helping the sight of her sagging breasts in the least.

Hermione smiled back to the woman charmingly, "Yes, I was wondering if Harry was here? I'm not sure you remember me Mrs. Dursley, I'm Hermione Granger, Harry's friend from school?" The girl watched as the woman took a step back and Harry's uncle heaved himself up from in front of the TV to stand behind his wife.

"What do you want with the boy?" He asked her gruffly, any pretence of manners gone when coming to face a person of magical being. His mustache wiggled, showing his agitation.

Hermione did not lose her courtesy, although her smile did grow somewhat colder, "I just thought I would come by to check in, I have been busy helping my parents prepare for a long vacation abroad and have not had the time to owl lately."

"He is not here," Petunia said, narrowing her eyes at the vaguely familiar girl. "Are you not the girl with the parents as dentists?"

"I am."

"How can they allow you to consort with those people? They are what got my sister killed."

Hermione thought this was a somewhat random question but answered nonetheless, her face lost the smile and turned to a mimicking of Severus' as she stepped closer to the doorway. "Lily and James died by the hand of a man who sought to kill your only nephew." Hermione cocked her head to the side like Crookshanks does when he finds something questionable, "You would think you would treat the only peace of the sister you had left with love, you had to have loved her once since you kept him with you instead of sticking him in an orphanage." Petunia's face turned white as Vernon's did the opposite, placing a hand on on her shoulder as he opened his mouth. "I hope you have a wonderful day, I can find Harry on my own." She did not bother saying anything about the slight to wizarding kind being referred to as 'those people' as she turned to walk back down the sidewalk, tired of these uppity people.

She paused though as she looked back and saw them staring after her, "By the way, Severus Snape says hello." She smiled widely at their shocked and confused faces, humming under her breath as her strappy sandals hit the pavement with sharp taps.

She finds him swinging slightly on a child's playground a mile away from his neighborhood, his back facing her as he scuffs his foot along the dry dirt. She was already sweating in this heat and wished she had brought some sunglasses as she rolls the roundabout wheel, causing it to squeak as Harry's head comes up sharply, not having expected to see anyone in the heat of the day under no trees. His eyes are filled with surprise as he looks at his best friend walking towards him in her little white dress, smiling widely at his expression.

"Hermione!" He jumps off the swing and runs towards her in the little space they had between them, catching her around the waist and lifting her off her feet. "What are you doing here?"

She laughs in his ear as he spins her, squeezing his neck tightly once more before he lets her down. Pushing back her damp hair from her forehead she walks with him back towards the swing.

"I missed you," she reaches out for his hand and lets it them dangle between them, "And I wanted to see how you were doing."

His eyes lose some of it's temporary shine, but he doesn't let go of her hand even as he answers. "You didn't seem that interested with the lack of owls I've gotten from you and Ron." He avoids the undertone of the question, knowing she was asking about Cedric's death, but she wouldn't let him off the hook for long.

Hermione digs her nails into the side of his palm, "Dumbledore gave us orders to not contact you, and when I called the telephone your aunt would always say you were out." He looks up from where he had been pouting towards the ground, his brow furrowed. "I think he believes you need to work things out on your own, but I disagree with him."

He smiled slightly at her characteristic 'Hermione knows best, so I will do what I think is best so deal with it' attitude. "Is that why you are here then? Because you worry too much? Don't think I can handle it on my own?" He didn't know what to think of the Headmaster at the moment, for years Hermione had been telling him that certain things the older wizard made not a lick of sense. He was starting to see that now, even if he was a very powerful and intelligent man he admired.

"I always worry about you, Harry. I love you more than anyone else loves you in this world, and no one will keep me from my brother after he had gone through something like you did only a few months ago."

Harry flushed in the heat, his eyes watering just a bit. Here was this girl that he had met only a few years ago who has shown him much more love than any of his supposed family had in fifteen.

"I love you too," he squeezes her hand even more tightly as he hesitates, cutting off a bit of circulation until it went numb. "I keep dreaming, about that night."

She listens to him take a deep breath, he hadn't told anyone details about the night the Dark Lord was resurrected, and she had a feeling he was about to and hoped maybe it would help him enough with the night terrors. They were interrupted though by a large boy coming across the field in front of the playground, a group of laughing boys around them. He had an unattractive sneer on his face, and Hermione knew it was Harry's cousin, Dudley.

"Who is this, Potter?" He eyed her up and down, from her loose strappy sandals to her low neckline. "You're girlfriend? Not like you could get one anyway." The boys around him snickered, pushing each other around.

Hermione watched as Harry's face closed up once again and morph into annoyance and sighed, knowing it was going to be hard to get him to talk about it again. They both stood up as she let go of Harry's hand, but stepped closer to him.

"I'm Hermione Granger. A friend of Harry's from school, you must be his cousin?" She cocked her head from the side, trying to resist laughing at the scared look on his face that he hadn't covered up quickly enough with an ugly sneer.

He took a step backward, his friends looking at him confused as the boy saw Hermione's hands idly twist a stick in her fingers, now scanning him up and down. The mouse recognized the prey, and kept up it's megre shackles.

"Lets go, they're not worth messing with. I'm-" Dudley abruptly broke off as the skies thundered above them, dark storm clouds rolling across the sun as the temperature dropped dramatically. Goose bumps appeared on Hermione's arms and legs as Dudley looked wildly back to her wand then her face, soundly slightly hysterical as he backed up more. "We're leaving! We're leaving, stop!" The other boys he came with fled in opposite directions, supposedly home as rain started pouring down and black figures came along.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand, pulling him as she begins to see her breath. "Get back to the house! Now!" She grabs Dudley's shoulder as he also begins to shiver, not bothering to snap at her as they all start running back towards the Little Whinging suburbs.

They were cornered in a long dark car tunnel, frost spreading across the walls and Hermione ran her fingers across the wand on her thigh for reassurance, then her flowered one disillusioned on her arm. Hermione hated the feeling of them even being in the near vicinity of you, feeling as if all the warmth and happiness bled from your pores. One went after Harry first, as the Dark Lord ordered, but it seemed as if it had brought a friend that then went for a wholly confused Dudley that, as a muggle, could see nothing of what was going on right in front of him. All he saw was Harry pinned to the wall, seemingly being held up by an invisible force, until he was knocked to the ground and he got a brief glimpse of a dark wraith as all the happiness of the past was sucked and drained away from him.

Waiting just long enough to see that the Dementors had no intentions of stopping, despite orders, she conjured her Patronus with her swirled and slightly crooked wand. Watching as her fox gave a roar surprisingly loud for it's body, she chased away the awful things of Death, right over the head of an slight, older woman with a rain cap over her hair.

"What's going to happen to you, Hermione? They will know it was your wand that cast the Patronus." He had asked her as they picked up Dudley and slowly made their way back to his aunt and uncle's home, Hermione being much shorter than his cousin it was made even slower as he was only half conscious and loopy.

"Nothing will happen, Harry. Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. And don't worry about the Dementors, I don't think they will try to come after you again."

"Why did they come after me in the first place, the Ministry is supposed to hold them to Azkaban."

It was dark by the time they walked up the short sidewalk, and all Hermione said was, "The Ministry doesn't control everything, love. You should know that by now."

Petunia and Vernon started shrieking at Harry as soon as they walked in with their grey faced boy, turning their ire to Hermione when she brought out her wand.

Vernon stepped in front of Dudley, "You are NOT using that unnaturalness on my boy, not after what you lot has already done to him!"

Hermione gritted her teeth and glanced to Harry who was staring at her wand, confusion written all over his face and she knew she would have to explain.

"Do you want your son better or not? I doubt they could make him feel better faster than I can."

Petunia pulled her husband out of the way with a distasteful expression, losing it to a slight awe when she saw the light blue mist come from the girl's wand. She waved it in a slow circle and a beautiful and regal looking fox materialized, jumping playfully around her shoulders before nuzzling her cheek affectionately.

Hermione smiled slightly, touching noses with her fox and giving it her instructions before it went to sprint around Dudley and then out the window after the boy gained some color and coherency. She told Petunia to get him to chocolate to make up for the shock.

"That's not your wand, where did you get it?" Harry pulled her aside as Vernon fussed around his son. "Is that why you aren't worried about the trace?"

Hermione sighed, slipping it back into her thigh holster, making Harry raise his eyebrows at her position of choice. "Yes it's why I'm not worried, and it's a precaution for things like this." She evaded the question as to where she had procured it, gesturing to his cousin as she answer the second part.

He narrowed his eyes at her, opening his mouth just as the doorbell rang.

Petunia opened the door as she came back into the living room, "I said don't worry, love. I've got it handled." She put her hand on his cheek, Petunia gasping at the man in her doorway.

Severus Snape, a boy the Petunia Dursley hadn't seen since she had been Petunia Evans, stood in front of her, looking much the same as he had more than fifteen years ago. She backed up as he let himself inside her home, nodding his head to her with a bit of a sneer that hadn't changed much, "Hello, Tuny." The man went to stand next to Harry's little girl friend that had healed her son, and who had told her and Vernon a hard truth only hours ago.

"Severus!"

"Snape," Harry said, taking a step forward. "Professor Snape." He corrected himself as Hermione pinched him. He wanted to know why his Potions Professor always seemed to be somewhere near Hermione when they were not in school, not many people noticed, but he had. He never asked Hermione, not knowing if he wanted to know the answer she would give him.

Vernon grew pale at the new man in the house, not having seen in in as many years as Petunia had. He was taller than Harry's uncle, and even taller than the girl who smiled up at him at his side. His hair had grown to just brushing his shoulders, although it did look less greasy than it had when he was a teen. The sneer that had seemed a permanent fixture on his face seemed, even to this day as he entered his house dropped as he looked down to the curly haired girl of Harry's. The frock coat he wore only made him that much more intimidating.

"Snape," he said, his voice sounding gruffer than usual, his hand on his son's slightly swaying shoulder. "What are you doing in my house?" His natural caustic nature seemed to have deflated significantly at the man's presence. Dudley moaned.

Severus raised an intimidating eyebrow, causing a little giggle to escape Hermione. He had told her long ago that he never cared for the overweight man that Petunia had married, turning the girl even more against her sister than she already was.

"I have come to pick up the girl," his hand twitched minutely between the small space by their arms, telling Hermione he wanted to reach out to her. She wrapped her pinky around his and felt him relax a small bit in as he talked to the muggles he hadn't seen for years. He turned his head to Harry, "And to tell Potter that someone will pick him up in a few days."

Harry nodded, and hugged Hermione who stood on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. He watched the adults in the room stare at each other. Hermione kissed his cheek and told him to try and stay out of trouble for the few hours she would be away from him.

"You are a teacher now, Severus?" Petunia took a hesitant step forward, wanting for an unknown reason to delay the last time she would likely see the last person who had known her sister alive.

"Yes," he drawled as Hermione took her place beside him once more. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, wanting to get out of these muggle's cozy little house. "Good day, Tuny, Vernon." He nodded to them swiftly, looking down to Hermione in silent question who nodded. They turned sharply to the left, and disappeared from the Dursleys living room.

Petunia frowned, standing somewhat in shock at the scene she had just witnessed. Severus Snape, she knew, had no other friends than her own sister, and she knew he had looked at her in a loving way that could only come from her affectionate sister clinging to the only piece of the magic world she had in a muggle neighborhood. That same look was mirrored towards the obviously much younger girl that was friends with her nephew, a nephew that seemed to think that a teacher holding his best friend in the way he had was no surprise.

Harry took the chocolate bar out of Petunia's nerveless fingers as Dudley started hyperventilating, breaking off a piece for his own pale face before shoving the rest in his cousin's mouth.

 **A/N: Reviews plse!**


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